England to ban some single-use plastic items from October

England will ban a range of single-use plastic items such as cutlery, plates and bowls from October in an effort to limit soaring plastic pollution, Britain’s environment department said on Saturday.
The decision follows a public consultation by the government in which 95% of respondents were in favour of the bans, the department said in a statement.
“We all know the absolutely devastating impacts that plastic can have on our environment and wildlife,” Environment Secretary Therese Coffey said. “These new single-use plastics bans will continue our vital work to protect the environment.”
Most plastics can remain intact for centuries and damage oceans, rivers and land where millions of tonnes end up as waste each year. The United Nations says decades of overuse of single-use plastics has caused a “global environmental catastrophe”.
The government said it is estimated England uses 2.7 billion items of single-use cutlery, most of which are plastic, a year as well as 721 million such plates, but only 10% end up being recycled.