Scotland’s ban on a range of single-use plastic items will be fully enforceable next month after an exclusion from the UK Internal Market Act (IMA) was agreed.
The Scottish Government’s market restrictions on expanded polystyrene cups, plastic cutlery and other “commonly-littered” products came into force on June 1st. However, they remained subject to the IMA, which rendered the regulations toothless because businesses in Scotland would have been able to supply banned items that originated from the rest of the UK.
The UK government has now signed a statutory instrument, which will exclude the regulations from the IMA from August 12th.
Scotland’s circular economy minister Lorna Slater said the news provides “certainty to businesses and consumers”.
The lag between the regulations coming into force and agreement on the IMA exclusion created confusion and conjecture. As Footprint reported in May, some packaging companies and their representatives had been promoting the Act as a means to circumvent the bans.
Slater blamed Westminster for the issues. “Protecting Scotland’s environment is a devolved matter and decisions like this should be ours to make,” she said, adding that is “wholly unacceptable” that laws like this can be put at risk by the IMA.
Experts predict further friction in relation to environmental regulations as Scotland, like Wales, has long said it wants to align closely with EU regulations going forward. The new market restrictions are in line with the EU’s Single-use Plastics Directive, although the Scottish government has yet to decide when to ban oxodegradable or oxobiodegradable packaging.
It is an offence for businesses in Scotland to supply certain single-use plastic items including plastic cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks), plates, straws (subject to exemptions), beverage stirrers and balloon sticks (subject to exemptions); food containers made of expanded polystyrene; and cups and other beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene, including their covers and lids.
The government is encouraging businesses to look at reusable options rather than simply switch to other single-use packaging materials.
