Why is this important?

The European Parliament is about to vote on new legislation to restrict single-use plastics – but unless MEPs close loopholes in the law, plastic-polluting corporations could be let off the hook!

Members of the European Parliament in the Environment Committee just agreed to a definition of "single-use plastic" that allows polluters to simply market their throwaway polluting plastic products as "reusable." [1] For example, corporations would be able to market a plastic water bottle or take-away food container as reusable, even though they neither design nor intend for it to be returned to be reused.

There’s still time for MEPs to propose changes before the vote to make sure that the Parliament closes this loophole, but there’s very little time left. If we can demonstrate that Europeans want the law strengthened, we could both fix the loophole and defend the proposal from pro-plastics MEPs’ attacks.

While some of the changes to the legislation made by the Environment Committee are positive, this new loophole could seriously undermine the law. Pro-plastics MEPs may now try to weaken the rules even further, and try to get corporations off the hook from paying to clean-up their plastic waste. They could also try to make the definition of "single-use plastic" even more narrow, thereby enabling polluting corporations to largely avoid the new law altogether.

Together, we can convince the EU to take badly needed action against plastic waste, and also make the world more accessible. People with mobility-related impairments and other people with disabilities rely on plastic straws because of their flexible and temperature-resilient qualities. MEPS need to take this into account, but it can't be used as an excuse to let polluting corporations off the hook.

References:

1. https://eeb.org/plastic-producers-could-market-single-use-items-as-reusable-to-dodge-eu-ban/

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