With the ban on single use plastic items coming into affect from 1 October, takeaways in Bradford have raised concerns that the restriction will eventually raise the prices and effect the customers.
As the ban comes into force, no business – whether retailer, takeaway, food vendor or part of the hospitality industry – will now be able to sell single-use plastic cutlery, balloon sticks nor polystyrene cups and food containers in England. The supply of single-use plastic plates, trays and bowls has also been restricted.
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said: This new ban is the next big step in our mission to crack down on harmful plastic waste. It will protect the environment and help to cut litter – stopping plastic pollution dirtying our streets and threatening our wildlife.
This builds on world-leading bans on straws, stirrers and cotton buds, our single-use carrier bag charge and our plastic packaging tax, helping us on our journey to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042.
Takeaway owners in Bradford have reacted with caution to this ban.
Zaid from Love Donner, a takeaway at Ingleby Road in Bradford said: “The ban’s going to add up at least up to 20% running costs at everybody. Your sauces, your chutneys, your dish, everything you take out, goes in a single use plastic, so obviously that’ll be passed on to the customer. The producers will pass on to distributors, the distributors will pass on to people like me. If something’s costing us £2.50, that’ll cost us £3.20 now. The end results would be that the prices will go high, and eventually customers will reduce eating out, so it’s like a circle effecting everyone.”
He went on to say that big food and retail chains won’t be affected, but small businesses like his will have to bear financially.
Tazeem, who runs a Tazza Kitchen agrees with the cost going up.
“I’ve started eco-friendly packages, and it has affected my costs, they have gone up. Eventually the prices will have to passed on to the customers. Everything’s going to go up in costs.
“Already with the cost of living crisis, lot of takeaways and cafes are already struggling, they have not put the prices up too much, the customers themselves are going through the crisis, but with all this happening, unless the Government gives some grant or help businesses integrate this change, the cost will be forced to be passed on to the customer.”
Plastic pollution takes hundreds of years to break down and inflicts serious damage on our ocean, rivers and land. It is also a source of greenhouse gas emissions, from its production and manufacture to the way it is disposed.
Research shows people across England use 2.7 billion items of mostly plastic single-use cutlery and 721 million single-use plates every year, but only 10% of these are recycled. If 2.7 billion pieces of cutlery were lined up, they would go round the world more than eight-and-a-half times.
