Single-use plastics are to be phased out across all government departments and agencies before wider laws are introduced to completely ban throwaway products, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said. The EU is moving to ban single-use plastic in an effort to cut marine pollution. “We also plan to legislate in this area as well.”The Government now has an obligation to introduce such measures after the EU produced an agreed document on tackling single-use plastics in December. Once they are formally approved, EU states will have two years to implement the measures banning single-use plastic which aim to cut marine pollution. The EU document will also ban oxobiodegradable plastics, which contain additives that promote fragmentation, essentially turning them into microplastics.

Source: Irish Examiner December 31, 2018 05:37 UTC