Department of Climate tweets IFCR’s Single Use Plastics Coverage

Department of Climate tweets IFCR’s Single Use Plastics Coverage

The team at Ireland’s Forecourt & Convenience Retailer were delighted to see that the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications tweeted out our four page feature on Single Use Plastics, the EU directive and changes coming across the forecourt and convenience sector from July.

The article – penned by the Department’s assistant secretary for waste and the circular economy Philip Nugent  laid out the facts, figures and responsilities of retailers once the Directive comes in to place soon.

“Our love affair with single use plastic (SUP) products can be traced back to our move to becoming a more ‘on-the-go’ society.  Some of the numbers are staggering- 22,000 disposable coffee cups sold every hour, more than 60% of people buy their lunch ‘on the go’ with each lunch averaging four packaged items.  The negative impact on our environment has been huge and the need to shift our collective mind-set in relation to SUPs has in recent years been recognised globally. The Single Use Plastics Directive, which is due to become law in July of this year,  aims to deal with the items that represent in excess of 70% of the marine litter found on European beaches and in the marine aquatic environment” wrote Philip Nugent.

Banning items from being placed on the market

Although final clarification on a number of technical issues is still awaited from the EU Commission, from July 3rd the following SUP items will be banned from being placed on the Irish market:

  • Cotton Bud Sticks
  • Cutlery
  • Plates
  • Stirrers
  • Chopsticks
  • Straws
  • Polystyrene cups and food containers
  • All products (not just SUP) containing oxo-degradable plastic

What this means in practice is that from July 3rd, once wholesalers and central distributors have sold out of all their existing stocks of the above items, they will no longer be permitted to buy more for the Irish market.

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