What plastics would you ban / put a charge on next?

[theremaybetulipsahead]

If you were the PM what 'easy wins' with regard to plastics would you implement?

Mine would be:

• Ban non-biodegradable nappies.
• Minimum charge to single-use plastic coffee cups (similar to plastic bag charge).
• Companies selling bottled water must also supply drinking water / water fountains. Add charge to bottled water.

Babies just woken up so will have to stop there...

Another bit about packaging:

My DC play games, I've got one home sick today and he's playing on the Switch. A game cartridge for the Switch is just slightly bigger than a postage stamp yet it comes in a big hard plastic case many times its size and there is nothing else inside it. Yes, the cartridge is plastic too but that is reused many times over and will eventually be passed on to friends or traded in to a game shop once it's no longer played with. The case though is useless, is just taking up space, and is a waste of plastic as it serves no purpose and is many times larger than it needs to be for the game it stores.

There should be regulations on the ration between packaging and product where packaging is not allowed to be more than x-times larger than the product it contains.

I know it's hard but I still think it shouldn't be allowed. A lot of flooding is exacerbated by so much cement in towns. But yes, I still think we need to accept the inconvenience. (I don't have parking near my flat and yes, it was a PITA with toddlers - and now I get my shopping on my bike because I can't park close to home so I guess the inconvenience has made me greener!)

Plastic needs to be made a lot more expensive so it's not always the cheapest option.

cards with glitter
non-recyclable gift wrap (seen loads in recycle bins after christmas meaning the whole load probably got land-filled)
Other glitter
party banners / sashes
balloons

Also would standardise recycling across UK so people know what goes where and it doesn't vary council to council

Putting non-recyclable in the recycle is as bad as not recycling at all.

I'd ban clothes retailers from wrapping every single item in plastic bags. The waste must be huge! It's not just online shopping from Next, M&S etc where every item is singly bagged, they're like that when delivered to the shop floor too! I've seen entire racks of clothes being wheeled onto the shop floor in their individual bags and then being unwrapped to be put on the shop display racks.

Also, I'd stop them wrapping entire trolleys/pallets of groceries in warehouses for delivery to supermarkets - they have machines which wrap the plastic sheets around the entire trolley multiple times. Just why? Why not have trolleys with sides to hold the stuff in?

By that same token, also ban those machines at airports which plastic-wrap your suitcase.

The sheer amount of plastic used on unnecessarily wrapping big items is lunacy.

Allow people to just have the canisters in asthma inhalers instead of having to get a new inhaler each time. Such a waste and can't see why they wouldn't be reusable

I know it's hard but I still think it shouldn't be allowed. A lot of flooding is exacerbated by so much cement in towns. But yes, I still think we need to accept the inconvenience. (I don't have parking near my flat and yes, it was a PITA with toddlers - and now I get my shopping on my bike because I can't park close to home so I guess the inconvenience has made me greener!)

Resin bound driveways are water permeable and don't cause flooding. I'm pretty sure you need permission for non-permeable driveways now.

Dunno if it counts as a plastic, but polystyrene. No need for it in most cases, and it's a nightmare to do anything much with after first use.

Plastic packaging can significantly reduce food waste - cucumbers wrapped in plastic last far longer.

Single use plastics in healthcare settings would be the absolute last thing I would tackle. The costs and energy in reliable sterilisation are immense.

Still not as good as a garden though. Plus we need gardens for wildlife. And they are just better to look at too. I know it's not easy to make the swap but I would love incentives to rewild lots of cement/tarmac/gravel surfaces.

Our cucumbers are sold without plastic and they last for ages anyway.

Vapes, water, coffee/tea, straws, bags, just ban them all!

its not about banning and i havent rtft.
every time i get a vitamin bottle i am appalled that half of it is empty. why dont they use smaller bottles?

God yes!

Tampon insertion plastics

I'd like to see the back of composite materials, e.g. coffee bags that are plastic inside with paper bonded to the outside, just to make them look more 'authentic'. It's so unnecessary.

And asthma inhalers. I'd like there to be a collection program at chemists where I could return my old inhaler when I pick up a new one. Many chemists are currently accepting blister packs for recycling, so they must have systems in place already to pass those blister packs on.

Bottles of shower gel. Just use a bar of soap.

e-waste: Vapes have been mentioned several times, but I can't see how it's still acceptable to produce new, disposable items with built-in batteries and electronics that are inherently destined for the bin. Like musical greetings cards, Christmas sweaters with lights/music, kids trainers with light-up soles, light up gin bottles FFS!

Plastic spouts on cardboard cartons. Unnecessary and a pita to recycle.

There are alternatives to concrete and paving slabs that are much better for the environment

any plastic food packaging! yogurt pots, bottles, tubs, microwave meals, crisp packets. All so much waste. There must be better alternatives out there.

Basically all single use plastics not required for safety or medical use. I think eventually this will be the future.

I'm not sure I'd ban anything, I think I'd focus on investing in making the recycling process effective and seamless — and easy for people to do. So stuff like better facilities, better sorting, more streetside/from-home collections, more products made from recycled and recyclable plastics.

And I'd pay the scaffies properly too. They do a really crucial job and aren't appreciated enough in our society.

I'm horrified by how much waste we 'export' which is very often not processed properly or else dumped illegally.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/17/uk-plastics-sent-for-recycling-in-turkey-dumped-and-burned-greenpeace-finds

Link to BBC News item now on YouTube

I believe that we should be responsible for the our own waste and we should accept that anything we import we also have to process responsibly when it reaches 'end of life' and not just ship it abroad.

I'd make sure that we can only use plastics that are easily recycled.

As much as using glass sounds like a great idea for everything, it does use up more fuel to transport, it's harder to take home if you don't drive and is far more breakable.

Maybe we should all have shopping trollies with lots of draws in it so that we can take all the fruit and veg home without it ending up as a squished dirty lump with everything tasting of onion at the bottom of your bag.

Paper bags seem a great idea, until everyone stops shopping on rainy days because they can't get get home without their purchases getting wet and ruined.