Response to consultation on plan to ban wet wipes containing plastic confirms new legislation is on the way
The government has this morning announced it will introduce legislation to ban the sale of wet wipes containing plastic before the summer.
Environment Secretary Steve Barclay said this morning that secondary legislation that cracks down on the "unnecessary source of pollution" would be introduced for England before MPs breaks for summer recess.
Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are expected to follow suit in the autumn as part of an aligned approach designed to bring a UK-wide ban into force, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.
Wet wipes containing plastic contribute to beach litter and blockages in sewers, while also presenting a threat to human and ecosystem health when they break down in waterways into micro plastics.
"Wet wipes containing plastic are polluting our waterways and causing microplastics to enter the environment," Barclay said. "Defra will introduce legislation before the summer recess to crack down on this unnecessary source of pollution, following our successful single-use carrier bag charge and ban on microbeads in personal care products."
In an official response to a public consultation on the proposed ban published this morning, the government confirmed that once the legislation is passed, an 18-month transition period will start that will allow businesses to prepare for the new rules.
Defra confirmed it did not intend to introduce a ban on the manufacture of wet wipes containing plastic, but said it would "continue to encourage manufacturers to move to a position where all their wet wipes are plastic free".
Its focus on banning the sale, and not the manufacture, of plastic-based wet wipes was in line with other recent bans on single-use plastic products, it said.
The government response also sets out how an exemption will exist for wet wipes containing plastic for medical disinfectant purposes and other applications where there is no viable alternative. It said it would review the need for these exemptions regularly.
Steve Ager, chief customer and commercial officer at Boots, welcomed the new measures, adding that the retailer had stopped selling wet wipes with plastic in them last year as part of its sustainability agenda.
"We are pleased to see the government now taking action as a ban on all wet wipes containing plastic will have a much bigger impact than retailers taking action alone," he said.
Data from Defra found that between 2015 and 2020, an average of 20 wet wipes were found per 100 metres of beach across the UK.
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