Consultation outcome

Single-use plastic: banning the supply of commonly littered single-use plastic items

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 20 November 2021
• Last updated: 14 January 2023 — See all updates

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Applies to England

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Summary of responses and government response

HTML

Draft Environmental Protection (England) Regulations 2023

PDF, 315 KB, 20 pages

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Detail of outcome

We received 53,329 responses to the consultation. As a result of this consultation, we will introduce legislation to ban the supply of single-use plastic in England from October 2023. This will include single-use plastic:

• plates
• trays
• bowls
• cutlery
• balloon sticks
• expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers - including cups

We have published an updated version of the draft regulations (known as a statutory instrument) to introduce these bans. As required under the Environmental Protection Act, the Secretary of State has published a notice in the London Gazette about these regulations.

You can send comments about these regulations to Plastics.Consultation@defra.gov.uk by 8 May 2023.

Detail of feedback received

We received 53,329 responses to the consultation, including 51,462 responses via a campaign hosted by 38 Degrees and City to Sea and 1,867 responses through the survey on GOV.UK and by email.

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Original consultation

Summary

Defra wants your views on a plan to ban the supply of single-use plastic items and polystyrene food and drink containers.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
12:15am on 20 November 2021 to 11:45pm on 12 February 2022

Consultation description

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) wants to know what you think about a plan to ban the supply of single-use plastic. This includes:

• plates
• cutlery
• balloon sticks
• expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drink containers

You can also contribute to Defra’s call for evidence on commonly littered single-use plastic items.

Published 20 November 2021
Last updated 14 January 2023 + show all updates

1. 14 January 2023

   Added the summary of responses and government response and the draft regulations (known as a statutory instrument) to introduce these bans.

2. 20 November 2021

   First published.