The Welsh Conservatives have put pressure on the Welsh Labour Government to act on the sale of single-use plastics in Wales.
- Plastic bottles can take up to 450 years to decompose,
- 14 million pieces of plastic in our rivers,
- 40% of litter in Wales is drink containers,
- A plastic carrier bag from the time of King Cnut (1019) would only just have decomposed - 1,000 years later!
In the Welsh Assembly, the Welsh Conservatives have challenged the Welsh Government to ban the use of plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds. There would be exemptions in the ban to ensure that people with medical needs or a disability are able to continue to access them, if they choose.
Sadly, Welsh Labour would only initially commit to “restricting the availability” of these single-use plastics items. More recently they have said they will bring forward a ban, although the Welsh Government have not done so, despite announcing a climate change emergency back in April this year.
A future Welsh Conservative Government would also introduce a drink containers deposit return scheme – something which the Party has been calling for since 2015 to reduce the amount of plastic that is being sent to landfill or ending up in our rivers and in the oceans.
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