euronwes.com By Jeremy Wilks
The effort to end plastic pollution in our oceans was one of the key themes of 2018, with European Union lawmakers ending the year with an agreement to ban certain single-use plastics by 2021.
Belgian MEP Frédérique Ries is behind the law, and told Euronews: "The balloon sticks, the stirrers, the cotton buds, the straws, the plates are going to be banned. And why are they going to be banned? Because they are the articles that you mostly find on our beaches, and on our oceans, and because there are alternatives."
A central issue in the single-use plastic ban is who is going to pay. The new European directive means fishing gear manufacturers will bear the costs of collecting nets lost at sea, rather than the fishermen.
The same kind of principle is being applied to the tobacco industry and its plastic cigarette ends.
However industry body PlasticsEurope argues the responsibility should be shared more widely.
Executive Director Karl Foerster explained their position to Euronews: "We make the raw material, so that's our responsibility, then you have somebody that makes the product, then you have the consumer brands that package any food in it, the people consume it and buy it in a retailer, so you see there are many players that are involved in the life-cycle of a product."
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