
European parliament approves sweeping ban on single-use plastics - optimusrex
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/24/european-parliament-approves-ban-on-single-use-plastics-uk-eu-brexit
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tomatotomato37
Fun statistics & math:

    
    
      2010 total plastic marine debris[0]: 4,800k - 12,700k metric tons
      2010 EU plastic marine debris[0]: 50k-120k metric tons (Higher than the US by ~1k)
      2010 EU plastic marine debris percentage[0]: 1%
      2016 EU export of nontoxic garbage to a country in top 10 plastic marine waste[2]: 269,000 tonnes (a lot missing statistics so wide error bars here)
      2015 percent of nontoxic garbage export that is plastic/mixed[1]: ~9%
      Hours wasted digging through overly verbose pdfs and mislabled charts: Too many
    
      Probable amount of EU plastic that gets exported to top 10 country: 26.9k - 53.8k tonnes
      Crude adjusted EU ranking if 100% of the doubled amount makes it into the ocean: ~10th 
      Incredibly crude adjusted EU plastic marine debris percentage: 2%
    

Other stupid things learned: Netherlands imports hilarious amounts of garbage
[3]

[0]:
[https://www.iswa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Calendar_2011_03_...](https://www.iswa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Calendar_2011_03_AMERICANA/Science-2015-Jambeck-768-71__2_.pdf)
(the footnote of table 1 specifically)

[1]: [https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-
explained/index.php...](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-
explained/index.php?title=Waste_shipment_statistics_based_on_the_European_list_of_waste_codes#Non-
hazardous_notified_waste_based_on_LoW)

[2]:
[http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do](http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do)
(You'll have to screw with the customizations to get useful statistics)

[3]: [https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/waste/transboundary-
waste-...](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/waste/transboundary-waste-
shipments)

------
kevin_b_er
Looking at it, I wonder how medical waste is handled. Single use plastics are
pretty common there, and they're considered bio-hazardous waste after. I'd
call plastic tubing and bags to be single-use plastic. There's no apparently
exception for them in my brief reading of the directive.

~~~
Someone
[http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/2018...](http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20181005STO15110/plastic-
in-the-ocean-the-facts-effects-and-new-eu-rules) says:

 _”A total ban is proposed for single-use plastic items for which alternatives
in other materials are already readily available: cotton buds, cutlery,
plates, straws, drink stirrers and balloon sticks. MEPs also added oxo-
degradable plastic products and fast food containers made out of polystyrene
to the list.

For the rest, a range of other measures is proposed:

\- Consumption reduction targets of 25% by 2025 for food containers and 50% by
2025 for cigarette filters containing plastic

\- Obligations for producers of items such as wrappers, cigarette filters, wet
wipes etcetera to cover the costs of waste-management and clean-up (so called
extended producer responsibility)

\- Collection target of 90% by 2025 for drink bottles (for example through
deposit refund systems)

\- Labelling requirements for sanitary towels, wet wipes and balloons to alert
users to their correct disposal

\- Awareness-raising

For fishing gear, which accounts for 27% of sea litter, producers would need
to cover the costs of waste management from port reception facilities. EU
countries should also collect at least 50% of lost fishing gear per year and
recycle 15% of it by 2025.”_

⇒ I don’t think medical waste falls under this change.

