Montgomeryshire MP, Glyn Davies, has welcomed a government to ban plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds from next year.
The announcement was made by the Environment Secretary, Michael Gove.
The government last week announced that it intends to ban these items from distribution and sale, which will come into force at some point between October 2019 and October 2020.
Whilst non-plastic alternatives are already readily available, these single-use plastic items are used for just minutes but take hundreds of years to degrade, with the cleaning up of such items costing local authorities millions of pounds each year.
Because there are instances where plastic may have to continue to be used, the government will consult on these proposals before legislating.
Mr Davies said: “Unnecessary and casual use of plastic is causing massive damage to our seas. Every year we use over 5 billion plastic straws in England and Wales, 316 million plastic drinks stirrers and 1.8 billion plastic stemmed Cotton buds. They are flushed down the toilet and forgotten about before ending up in our waterways and seas.
“These plastic items are used for a few minutes before being discarded, but take hundreds of years to break down. There will be exemptions for medical reasons, but the dreadful carnage in our oceans has to stop. Every year over one million birds die as a result of thrown away plastic, and 100,000 sea mammals die as well. This has to end and we must move to biodegradable substitutes.
“There has been some change already, and microbeads have been banned. But this is only a start. We need to clean up our act and will legislate to make sure we do.”
