From 30 October 2023 there will be a ban on anyone selling or supplying some single-use plastic products in Wales.
What is being banned?
- Single-use plastic plates – this includes paper plates with a laminated plastic surface
- Single-use plastic cutlery – for example forks, spoons, knives
- Single-use plastic drinks stirrers
- Cups made of expanded or foamed extruded polystyrene
- Takeaway food containers made of expanded or foamed extruded polystyrene
- Single-use plastic balloon sticks
- Single-use plastic-stemmed cotton buds
- Single-use plastic drinking straws – with exemptions so people who need them to eat and drink safely and independently can continue to have them
In 2022, plastic and polystyrene accounted for 76.5% of all beach litter in Wales.
Single-use plastics are discarded without thought, causing harm to wildlife and our environment.
We’re asking businesses and organisations to get ready for the change by reducing their stock levels, recycling existing stock and consider switching to reusable alternatives – and where this isn’t possible, looking at non-plastic alternatives.
For more information and a draft guide on how to get ready please select the following links: