Timmermans dismisses call to lift single-use plastic bans
The Single-Use Plastics Directive was adopted in June and introduced bans on a selected number of throw-away items.
BRUSSELS — Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans today dismissed a call from industry to lift the EU ban on some single-use plastic items because of the coronavirus outbreak.
“I really did not appreciate some people writing to me and using the need for [personal protective equipment] PPE in the health sector as a reason not to have a ban on certain single-use plastic items,” Timmermans told the Parliament’s environment committee.
The Single-Use Plastics Directive was adopted in June and introduced bans on a selected number of throw-away items such as cutlery, beverage cups, balloon sticks, straws and cotton bud sticks.
But EuPC, the European lobby for plastic converters, argued that the pandemic means some of those measures should be rethought.
“Plastics is the material of choice for ensuring hygiene, safety as well as preservation from contamination,” it said in a letter to the Commission, dated April 8. The group asked the Commission and member countries to “to lift all bans on some of the single-use plastics items” and to postpone deadlines in the directive “for at least an additional year.”
Timmermans cautioned that while the Commission would look at different sectors, it wasn’t in favor of using “COVID-19 to try and undo things that need to be done anyway.”