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Since the European Union put single-use plastic in the trash can, the plastic food containers, coffee cups, and tableware that came with all take-out items during the lockdown period are no longer on the table.

The EU's plastic ban aims to eliminate toxic waste on its beaches - including this beach near Odessa on the Black Sea

Large packaging cleaning has already begun.

With the entry into force of the European Union's 2019 Single-use Plastics Directive, from July 3, ten single-use plastic (SUP) products that have plagued European beaches for many years will be banned to a large extent.

From Saturday, plastic cotton swabs, cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers, balloon sticks, and polystyrene beverage and food containers cannot be sold. Also classified are oxidatively degradable plastic bags. These plastic bags are advertised as biodegradable, but according to the European Union, these plastic bags will decompose into microplastics that remain in the environment for a long time.   

These single-use plastics account for about 70% of European marine debris. Cafes and restaurants will now be forced to stock cups and straws made of bamboo, cellulose or other biodegradable materials.

But as part of the plastics reform, not all products have been banned. 

The immediate consumption of SUP bags, bottles, beverages and food containers, packaging and packaging, tobacco filters, hygiene products and wet wipes will still be restricted, and manufacturers will have to pay for cleaning up and carry out publicity campaigns about their environmental impact.

The ultimate goal is the EU's circular economy model, through which, by 2030, any remaining single-use plastics can be reused or recycled.

Here are five things about the EU's plastic-free future plans.

EU member states have enacted their own laws to implement the single-use plastics directive. Some people even decided to add it to the list of prohibited SUPs.

As part of the French “Circular Economy and Anti-Waste Law” passed in February 2020, most fruit and vegetable packaging will also be banned, as will plastic tea bags, confetti and plastic toys that are part of children’s menus.

Europe’s fight against marine plastic pollution: 22 kilograms (48.5 pounds) of plastic was found in the belly of a sperm whale that was found dead in Sardinian waters in 2019

In Germany, the measures approved in November added EPS polystyrene food containers to the SUP included in the directive.

In Luxembourg, since July 3, SUP has been banned from being sold during the holiday season. At the same time, in Greece, they have been banned from use in government agencies since February, the first such ban.

Other countries such as Italy and Belgium are also imposing plastic taxes or levies to curb the use of plastics.

All of this may seem random, but according to the European Green Agreement, all EU member states must ultimately comply with a waste-free and pollution-free circular economy model, in which any SUP can last for 20 years.

Although the Plastics Directive deals with many single-use plastic products that are eventually shipped to the European coast, it does not prohibit some of the 1.3 billion plastic beverage bottles sold every day around the world.

However, these fossil plastic containers made of PET are one of the few plastic containers that can be recycled and used to make new bottles, packaging, or fibers. The problem remains that only 65% ​​of PET bottles in Europe are collected for recycling, and the rest will take hundreds of years to decompose.

The SUP directive sets a collection target of 90% recycled PET bottles by 2029 (the target is 77% by mid-2025). By 2025, these bottles should also contain at least 25% recycled materials instead of virgin plastic

As part of the "Extended Producer Responsibility" authorization contained in the directive, manufacturers selling PET bottles now also have stricter responsibilities. According to the "polluter pays" principle, manufacturers must bear the cost of waste management and cleanup, and raise awareness of the environmental impact of products and the most sustainable treatment methods.

Natural polymers that have not been chemically modified are not subject to the directive. Any plastics made from modified natural polymers, fossils or synthetic raw materials are effectively banned.

The winner will be a series of new sustainable materials that have not been chemically modified. These include regenerated cellulose, which is used to make viscose, lyocell and cellulose film.

As the most abundant biopolymer on earth, regenerated cellulose is used to make strong, transparent and fully biodegradable films or sheets, which are largely impervious to oil and grease. Before the introduction of oil-based plastics, a long-used food packaging material, cellulose was back.

At the same time, biodegradable cotton swabs are usually made of compostable bamboo, which means they can be treated as ordinary organic waste. All these SUP tableware may also be replaced by fully compostable, 100% biodegradable bamboo, which is cheap and fast-growing.

In other words, when implementing the SUP directive, countries such as France and Belgium have banned products from being labeled "biodegradable" because this may be a form of green rinsing that encourages packaging consumption.

Article 8 of the EU Single-use Plastics Directive stipulates that tobacco manufacturers must pay for the cleaning of cigarette butts containing plastic filters.

Made from cellulose acetate, a polymer that decomposes very slowly in the environment. Approximately 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are discarded every year, making it the most littered item on the planet.

But the EU's SUP directive is forcing manufacturers to put labels on cigarette butts and packaging to raise awareness, rather than ban them outright.

Activists hope that plastic butts will simply be banned-this will not happen until 2027 when the SUP ban list is updated. 

In September 2020, anti-plastic campaigners collected 142,000 cigarette butts from streets across the Netherlands.

"Propaganda activities will not solve the problem," said Karl Beerenfenger of The Ocean of Our Unity, which co-organized the cleanup. "We must change the product itself. Cigarette filters are just a marketing tool to sell more cigarettes. We want to completely get rid of plastic cigarette filters."

But so far, there is no plan to ban ass.

Sustainable filters may be a temporary solution. Green Butts promotes its water-dispersible filters to the European Commission on social media, claiming that its products are biodegradable within a few days and are produced using sustainable natural fibers.

The SUP ban exempts medical-related plastic products, including masks and gloves that have become so common during the pandemic. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), in addition to the various types of packaging made of long-lasting SUP used in these pandemic response products, these materials eventually become waste in the terrestrial and marine environment, creating potential for ecosystems. Harmful effects).

The European Economic Area stated: “Compared with normal business before the pandemic, the number of masks imported into the EU has more than doubled.” The increase has occurred while the EU’s production has also increased.

In the first six months of the pandemic, approximately 170,000 tons of these plastic masks were introduced into the European Union, and the call for alternatives is increasing.

But so far, the new SUP rules have not addressed pandemic plastics: “It’s worth noting that the directive on single-use plastics does not even apply to disposable plastic products used by the health sector, such as disposable gloves, protective clothing and masks. ," Justine Maillot from Zero Waste Europe said in a statement. 

Vietnamese entrepreneur Tran Minh Tien uses local natural resources to do his part to solve the problem of plastic waste. His company 3T produces straws from hollow grass grown wild in the Mekong Delta west of the Vietnamese capital of Ho Chi Minh City.

Tien and his team picked grass from the marsh near the village by hand. Gray sedge has a hollow stem, which makes the plant very suitable for making straws. This is just the beginning: it is a labor-intensive process to transform wild glass into a finished product suitable for drinking.

After the grass is harvested, the workers will wash the long stems to remove excess dirt. Because this grass is called "co bang" locally, it grows in the wild, it is natural and organic, and does not contain chemicals and pesticides.

Workers used thin metal rods to completely hollow out the grass stems, and then cut them into a uniform length of about 20 cm, the same size as ordinary straws. The business started in 2017, and the company now produces approximately 3,000 straws per day.

Then put the straw in the sun for two or three days, or bake in the oven. Once completely dry, they can be used for up to six months. The demand for reusable, biodegradable straws is growing, but company founder Tran Minh Tien said that in order to maintain the sustainability of the business, he must be cautious about the speed of business expansion.

32-year-old Tran Minh Tien said: “From the beginning, I formed this idea around the fact that the harvest will never exceed the natural reproduction rate of the grass. Nature must also have enough time to recover.”

Finally, the straws are collected into bundles and wrapped in banana leaves for sale. Tien's company now has a monthly profit of approximately 3,600 euros. He said that he thinks straw straws are a temporary solution to the problem of plastic waste. But for him, they are a step in the right direction-and prove that green is worth it.

A study published this week in the journal "Science Advances" estimated that the total amount of plastic ever produced in the world was 8.3 billion metric tons.  

Germany is known for its special attention to environmental protection. So why does the Congress generate so much plastic waste? Can the Germans be persuaded to give up the excess packaging?  

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