Russia considers banning plastic tableware and straws

According to Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko, the Russian government is working on a new law that will ban the use of non-recyclable plastic goods, including disposable plastic tableware.

"We must ban the use and circulation of non-recyclable materials, such as, for example, colored plastic, hard-to-recover materials such as cocktail straws, disposable tableware, and so on. This is what we need to work on, and this is what we have in the practical work of the government," Abramchenko said at the Clean Country forum.

By 2030, Russia needs to achieve the extraction of 50 percent of secondary material resources from the entire mass of waste, which will halve both waste disposal and the use of primary resources.

According to Denis Butsaev, the head of the Russian environmental operator, it would be easier to ban non-recyclable materials if the Ministry of Industry and Trade was not tasked with the need to increase industrial production of goods and create jobs.

"Not to shock the industry, one needs to use economic incentives for the transition from difficult-to-process goods, in particular, packaging, to more environmentally friendly materials," added Butsaev.