Germany to ban single-use plastics by 2021

There are so many solid reasons why many countries in the world, including Germany, have considered banning single-use plastic products once and for all. True to its name, plastic items that are designed to be used once and are discarded thereafter. What’s worse with the single-use plastics is that they just don’t go away. If you dump them in a landfill, they’re likely to remain there for several hundred years and thereby causing harm to our ecosystem directly.

It is for the above reasons Germany has considered banning single-use plastic items once and for all. Incidentally, the decision taken by Germany falls in line with the directives of the European Union for reducing plastic wastes at the earliest. The good news is that, if all measures are implemented properly, the prohibition will take its shape from July 2021.

According to experts in the field, when plastic pieces are discarded or thrown away, they only manage to get broken into smaller and smaller pieces. This process takes place continuously until they’re found in our drinking water and our air. Therefore, banning single-use plastic products would not only mean maintaining our ecosystem but also safeguarding our health and overall well being.

When Germany does manage to ban these products for good, items like food containers, cotton buds, plastic straws, and others will be a thing of the past. Gradually, the need will be felt to have these items replaced by Eco-friendly products that would serve similar purposes.

Countries like Germany have considered banning single-use plastic products because, despite our noble intentions, they shouldn’t be used at all. If reusable and biodegradable bags can be used again and again, a lot of caution has to be exercised while using single-use plastic items, especially when they’re used in the form of bottles and food containers for they could release harmful chemicals when used continuously.

One better alternative to these items would be metal or glass. Alternatively, people using products through single-use plastics should be more responsible and take initiatives to refrain from using them as that would reduce the dependence on single-use plastic products.

In Germany, the need was felt by the members of the government to get rid of the ‘throw-away culture’ that was associated with the usage of plastics. This was especially so when the waste collected in various public places, including the parks spread across the country, amounted to more than 20% of overall trash collected by the agencies. The sad part of this story is that the polystyrene containers made up for the bulk of the plastic collection.

Furthermore, if the data collected by UBA (Federal Environmental Agency) is to go by, then in 2017 alone, Germany collected 18.7 million tons of plastic waste. The discovery of microscopic plastic particles inside birds, aquatic animals, and others even in faraway places means the extent of pollution due to discarded plastic materials is huge and the need to tighten their usage or even completely banning them was felt acutely in many countries, including Germany.

The efforts taken by Germany in putting an end to the usage of single-use plastic products is a small step in alleviating the dependence on fossil fuel by the country. Nonetheless, this step is an important one.