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ARTICLE · 02 JULY 2018

The European Commission Proposes Restrictions On Single Use Plastics

Jones Day
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On May 28, 2018, the European Commission ("Commission") published its Proposal for a Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment ("Proposal").

European UnionEnvironment
Ursula Schliessner
Ursula Schliessner
Chris Papanicolaou
Chris Papanicolaou
Elodie Simon
Elodie Simon
Preslava Dilkova
Preslava Dilkova
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In short

The Situation: Current EU legislation does not address management of single use plastic products.

The Result: Following its previous example of light-weight plastic carrier bags, the European Commission therefore proposes a Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment, which specifically targets 10 sets of single use plastic items, and fishing gear containing plastic.

Looking Ahead: It is expected that the new Directive on single use plastic products will improve the environmental situation of marine litter and at the same time will diminish the risk of potential EU market fragmentation in case an increasing number of Member States were to adopt national legislation.

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