A range of single use plastics will be completely banned across all 27 European Union countries by 2021, if a new proposal from the Parliament goes through its final procedural hurdles, which it is expected to.
The complete ban will apply to plastic cutlery and plates, straws, cotton buds, balloon sticks and drink stirrers. Usage of single use food and drink containers like plastic cups will be significantly reduced.
Items where there is no readily available alternative, such as burger boxes and sandwich wrappers will have to reduce their plastic component, by 25 per cent initially.
The new EEC directive also stipulates that 90 per cent of all plastic drink bottles are collected for recycling by 2025. Plastic bottles currently account for 20 per cent of all plastic in the sea.
Manufacturers will be required to take more responsibility for the post-consumer journey of their plastic packaging.
The main vote went through easily on 571 for 53 against. If the directive comes into law before Brexit it will also apply to the UK.
The new law has been driven by consumer outrage fuelled by the Blue Planet TV documentaries of David Attenborough, which highlighted the sheer volume of plastic in the world's oceans, and the detrimental effect it is having on marine life.
The EEC nations currently see around 150,000 tonnes of plastic dumped into the seas each year, although this is a literal drop in the ocean compared to the estimated eight million tonnes of plastic that the world as a whole puts into the water.
