Official name: Single-Use Plastics Directive
Citation: Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment
Year / status: In force 2 July 2019. Member States had to transpose the core market restrictions by 3 July 2021.
What it does
The Directive bans placing certain listed single-use plastic products on the EU market (including cotton-bud sticks, cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers, and oxo-degradable plastic). It also requires consumption reduction for some cups and food containers, extended-producer-responsibility rules, marking, and separate collection targets for plastic bottles.
Where it applies / status
EU Member States, via national transposing laws. EEA relevance is stated on the act. It is not a United Nations treaty and does not bind non-EU countries.
Documented benefits or intended effects
The intended effect is to cut marine and other environmental leakage from the products that dominate some European beach-litter counts. That rationale is in the Directive itself. National implementation and substitution differ; no single post-2021 global-tonnage reduction is cited here.
Caveats
A ban on listed items is not a cap on polymer production. Substitutes (other plastics, paper, or “bio” materials) can shift the problem. Transposition quality varies. Packaging rules have since been updated by later EU acts, including the 2025 packaging regulation that amends this Directive.
Sources
EUR-Lex official text; Commission single-use plastics topic page.