Environmentalists cautiously celebrated “a victory for our oceans, for the environment, and for future generations” on Wednesday as the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a proposal to outlaw the most common single-use plastic products across Europe.
“The European Parliament has made history by voting to reduce single-use plastics and slash plastic pollution in our rivers and ocean,” responded Justine Maillot of Surfrider Foundation Europe, on behalf of Rethink Plastic, a coalition of environmental groups on the continent.
“Citizens across Europe want to see an end to plastic pollution,” Maillot added. “It’s now up to national governments to keep the ambition high, and resist corporate pressure to continue a throwaway culture.”
MEPs voted 571-53—with 34 abstentions—to advance the proposal initially introduced in May. As BBC News reports, “The measure still has to clear some procedural hurdles, but is expected to go through.” Negotiations among representatives from national governments, the European Parliament, and the European Commission to finalize the law could begin as early as November.
While campaigners have raised alarm about potential loopholes as well as covert lobbying by Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Danone, they welcomed the widespread support for the measure, which would ban single-use plastic cotton buds, straws, plates and cutlery, beverage stirrers, balloon sticks, oxo-degradable plastics, and expanded polystyrene food containers and cups across the EU by 2021.
Although the ban, unfortunately, will not extend to very light-weight single-use plastic bags, Greenpeace EU chemicals policy director Kevin Stairs said that with Wednesday’s vote, “we’re one step closer to protecting people and wildlife from the plastic that’s choking our rivers and seas, turning up everywhere, from the Antarctic Ocean to the salt on our tables.”
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