Nottinghamshire Trading Standards is reminding businesses that as of 1 October, the supply and sale of certain single-use plastic items is banned under new legislation introduced to tackle plastic pollution and littering.
The ban applies to businesses in England and covers a wide range of single-use items including plastic cutlery, plates, bowls, balloon sticks and certain styles of polystyrene cup and food containers.
Nottinghamshire County Council Trading Standards is advising businesses including sandwich shops and takeaways to source alternatives if they haven’t already done so, as they risk being fined if they use the banned items.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s Tom Smith, Deputy Cabinet Member for Communities said: “We fully support the ban on single-use plastics, as it’s vital that we reduce the amount of plastic that ends up polluting rivers and seas and harming our wildlife. Our Trading Standards officers are here to support Nottinghamshire firms so we would encourage local businesses to get in touch and make use of the free specialist support that we are offering to help them meet the new rules around single-use plastics.”
In England approximately 2.7 billion items of single-use cutlery, and 721 million single-use plates are estimated to be used every year, and it is believed that only 10% of these are recycled.
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