Single-use plastics bans and restrictions
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You must not supply certain single-use plastic items in England, except for some exemptions.
Adapted edition
- Document type
- Reference Guide
- Format
- DOCX
- Pages
- 5
- Language
- English
- Version
- 1.0
- Updated
- 2026-09-17
- Category
- Safety & operations
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0
Description
You must not supply certain single-use plastic items in England, except for some exemptions. Consult the original guidance for current legal and operational details.
Contents
- Banned items
- Restricted items
- Exemptions for plates, bowls and trays
- Exemptions for straws
- Registered pharmacies
- Catering establishments
- Medical devices and uses
- Packaging
- Care homes, prisons, schools and early years providers
- Exemptions for cotton buds
- Medical devices and purposes
- Forensic purposes
- Scientific purposes
- Polystyrene containers for unprocessed or unprepared food
- What we mean by single use and reusable
- Alternatives to single-use plastic
Source and licence
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
AttributionDepartment for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ‘Single-use plastics bans and restrictions’ (updated 7 October 2024), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
ChangesNeutral text-only adaptation from the official GOV.UK Content API body: headings, paragraphs, ordered and unordered list items and clickable source-link destinations in an appendix preserved. Images, logos, page design, accessible-format request widgets and linked attachments excluded; normalised whitespace, invisible format marks and typography.
Version history
- v1.017/09/2026