England recently announced that it will ban single-use plastic cutlery, plates, and trays given out by restaurants and cafés starting in October 2023 in an effort to reduce pollution. The new ban follows the country’s previous ban on single-use plastic straws, stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds in 2020, and similar bans approved by the European Union in 2018 and enacted in Scotland and Wales in 2022 (N.Y. Times). England’s environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, praised the ban, stating that it will “have a huge impact to stop the pollution of billions of pieces of plastic and help to protect the natural environment for future generations.” 

Research suggests that single-use plastic cutlery and containers used in takeout currently comprise the largest share of litter in the world’s oceans (The Guardian). England uses an estimated 2.7 billion items of single-use cutlery and 721 million single-use plates each year, 10% of which are recycled (N.Y. Times). The ban does not include the plastic packaging used in supermarkets and stores, but the government is planning to address this in a separate strategy beginning in 2024 (NPR). 

While environmentalists have welcomed the ban, they have also criticized it as insufficient, overdue, and the bare minimum level of action needed. "We have to move away from all single-use kind of throwaway items," noted Steve Hyndside, a British environmental nonprofit policy manager, "and try to encourage a more circular economy” (NPR).