The UK government confirms it will ban plastic straws next year, but not in bars

The UK government will ban the sale and use of single-use plastic items like straws, stirrers and cutlery next year.

(Photo: iStock)

Environment secretary Michael Gove said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is “taking further action to turn the tide on plastic pollution,” in a tweet on Wednesday 21 May.

“Items such as plastic straws & stirrers are often used for just a few minutes but take hundreds of years to break down,” he said, “ending up in our seas & oceans and harming precious marine life.”

The use and sale of plastic straws will be “banned” in England from April 2020, according to a press release from DEFRA, but they will still be available throughout the UK.

Retailers such as supermarkets will be prohibited from selling single use plastics including straws, but they will still be sold at registered pharmacies.

The initiative is designed to cater for people with disabilities.

Only plastic drinks stirrers will be totally banned from sale – currently 316 million are used a year.

Bars and restaurants will not face a full ban on plastic straws. Hospitality businesses will not be allowed to display plastic straws, but customers will be able to request a plastic straw upon request, and won’t need to prove they have a disability to receive them, according to DEFRA.

The ministry said it  had worked with disability groups “so that they don’t feel stigmatised.”

Kate Nicholls, the CEO UKHospitality, said the trade body’s members “fully support” the new policy, adding that it recognises a “genuine need of some of our customers…by allowing straws for customers upon request, which is a practice that the sector was rapidly implementing or moving towards.”

A number of bar and hotel groups have already started to phase out their own single use plastics.

Hilton said it planned to remove plastic straws from all managed hotels around the world by the end of 2018, as well as axing plastic water bottles from its conference rooms.

Marriott International also said it would ban plastic straws from its hotels worldwide in July last year, shortly after the chain had started planning phase out disposable plastics at its UK sites.

Bacardi was among the first to call time on plastic straws and stirrers, banning their use across its events in 2016 in an effort to reduce waste as part of its ‘Good Spirited’ campaign, and Pernod Ricard followed suit in January 2018.

Bar groups such as Wetherspoon’s have been phasing plastic straws out from their venues since September 2017.

Nicholls added the hospitality sector has “voluntarily made significant progress in reducing the availability and use of plastic straws and stirrers, motivated both by a moral duty and our customers’ environmental concerns.”

The UK government first launched its consultation on a nation-wide plastic ban last year.

Brigid Simmonds, the head of the British Beer and Pub Association, also supported the government’s decision to exempt bars, restaurants and hotels from the ban.

The policy, she said, “recognises the needs of customers with a disability who require plastic straws, so pubs will still be able to provide them on request, adding that the trade group will work with DEFRA to “ensure that the right guidance is put in place for this.”

“The ban will build on the great work already done by pubs to reduce their waste plastic.”