Cotton buds & plastic straws to be banned to tackle plastic pollution

Cotton buds, plastic straws and stirrers are to be banned in England from April next year (2020) in a bid to help tackle plastic pollution.

The ban comes after campaigns from Sir David Attenborough and the UN calling for a reduction in plastic waste that cannot decompose, seeing more pressure on businesses to do more to help tackle the growing threat of pollution.

Retail app, Ubermarket, has undertaken research across a sample of UK adults to find out how consumers feel about the production and consumption of plastic and found 57% of Brits think plastic pollution is the single greatest threat to life and the environment in modern history.

The research conducted by Ubermarket also found:

• 77% of people think that, no mayor how much they recycle, they feel it is the manufacturers that are causing the most plastic pollution.
• 44% of respondents actively purchased products that have less of an impact on the environment even if they were more expensive.
• 36% stated that they won’t purchase from retailers and companies that are known to have poor environmental standards around their packaging.
• 42% of the British public want to be more environmentally conscious but feel they do not know enough about recycling and plastic pollution to make informed changes.
• 41% believe that plastic packaging is having an adverse effect on their health.

“This year the war on plastics is one that, thankfully, doesn’t seem to be dying out,” says Will Broome, CEO of Ubermarket. “As consumers demand change at both a corporate and policy level, the government will have no choice but to implement changes nationally. The true scale of waste and plastic content of products has previously been shielded, however in this current climate, this is no longer possible.”

For more information on the role of the beauty industry in regards to plastic pollution, check out the May issue of Scratch!