Keen to cut down on pollution and encourage recycling, the European Union is banning a number of single-use plastic products, including straws, forks, plates, balloon sticks, food/beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene, and all products made of oxo-degradable plastic. Relatedly, the EU is also requiring that, by 2029, all member countries recycle 90% of the beverage bottle waste they produce.

Both decisions could have implications for the promotional products industry.

The European Parliament, effectively the legislature governing the 28 EU nations, voted overwhelmingly (560 to 35) on March 27 to institute the prohibition on plastics, effective 2021. While concern about marine pollution from single-use plastics was an important factor in the vote, so was China’s recent decision to stop importing EU waste. That presents a practical concern, given that the EU recycles only a quarter of the 25 million tons of plastic waste it produces per year.

“Europe is setting new and ambitious standards, paving the way for the rest of the world.”https://t.co/caKwtgNFu0

— Globalnews.ca (@globalnews) March 28, 2019

From a promo perspective, the ban on certain single-use plastic items is a potential opportunity to increase sales of branded reusables. For instance, companies that want to show they’re embracing the green ethos could provide employees and/or clients with logoed reusable cutlery kits. There’s also opportunity to increase sales of logoed reusable straws. Same applies to drinkware, including tumblers and water bottles, as countries aim to reduce beverage bottle waste so they have less to process through recycling. Naturally, such opportunities are open to European distributors and the growing number of U.S. distributors with sales efforts in Europe.

Single-use plastic bags aren’t mentioned in the new regulations, but that’s because the EU had previously implemented rules aimed at vastly reducing their use and encouraging patrons to go with reusable bags. The EU prohibitions on plastic bags say all 28 member countries must reduce average annual plastic bag use per person to 90 by 2019 and 40 by 2025.

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