On June 5, 2019, the European Parliament and the Council promulgated the SUPD (Disposable Plastic Directive) policy.
The directive will take effect from July 3, 2021, to ban all EU member states from placing 9 kinds of disposable plastic products on the market.
Among them, it is proposed for disposable plastic products: Plastics manufactured with modified natural polymers, or plastics manufactured from bio-based, fossil or synthetic starting substances are not naturally occurring and should therefore be addressed by this Directive.
The adapted definition of plastics should therefore cover polymer -based rubber items and bio-based and biodegradable plastics regardless of whether they are derived from biomass or are intended to biodegrade over time. Paints, inks and adhesives should not be addressed by this Directive and therefore these polymeric materials should not be covered by the definition.
We can understand that on June 5, 2019, the European Commission has clearly pointed out that disposable plastics made of biodegradable plastics are also prohibited by the directive.
On May 31, 2021, the EU promulgated the "Guidelines for Disposable Plastic Products" once again clarified the relevant definitions. In order to implement the EU Directive No. 2019/904 (SUP Directive) on disposable products, the directive will take effect on July 3, 2021. The specific abbreviations are as follows:
1."plastic'means a material consisting of a polymer as defined in point (5) of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 ,to which additives or other substances may have been added, and which can function as a main structural component of final products,with the exception of natural polymers that have not been chemically modified"[Emphasis added]
2. "Plastics manufactured with modifled natural polymers, or plastics manufactured from bio-based, fossitl or synthetic starting substances are not naturally occurring and should therefore be addressed by this Directive.
3. Biodegradable plastic refers to its synthetic source is bio-based biodegradation.
The committee will proceed from environmental interests, and is expected to formulate a framework policy on the use of biodegradable or compostable plastics by 2022.
In addition, the guide also emphasizes that paper-based products containing plastic coatings also fall within the scope of the directive, because after this type of product is discarded, the paper-based part is easy to decompose, but the plastic part will still exist in the natural environment for a long time. Replacing disposable plastic cups with paper cups containing plastic coatings cannot fundamentally solve the problem of environmental pollution.
Before the framework policy for biodegradable or compostable plastics is released, we can use more of our original natural biodegradable disposable tableware, such as bagasse food container, bagasse plates, bagasse bowls, bagasse cups and bagasse knife, fork, spoon to protect our environment.