UK supermarkets to ban plastic cotton buds

Cotton buds made of plastic will be banned by the two largest supermarkets in the United Kingdom – Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

Plastic cotton buds are a big contributor to beach pollution, as they are frequently flushed down toilets.

The plastic stems of the cotton buds will be replaced by paper in the two major supermarkets by the end of 2017 in their own brand products.

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said: “We have been working hard to improve this product. Our new cotton buds, with 100% biodegradable stems, will be available before the end of 2017.”

A Tesco’s spokesman said: “We’re committed to ensuring all of our own label cotton bud products will be made with paper stems, and will do this by the end of 2017.”

Other large UK companies such as Waitrose, the Co-operative and Johnson & Johnson have already announced the ban of plastic stems in their own brands, and Morrisons, Asda and Boots have plans to do the same.

Small plastic items can be particularly detrimental to sea life as animals confuse them for food.

The introduction of the 5p plastic bag charge in UK supermarkets has already helped to reduce marine pollution by diminishing more than half the number of plastic bags left on beaches.

The government also has plans to ban microbeads in toiletries – another contributor to ocean pollution.

Natalie Fee, Founder of the City to Sea campaign to cut plastic pollution, said: “We’re delighted with the announcements to ‘switch the stick’ from plastic to paper stem buds. Whilst they still shouldn’t be flushed, this move will stop millions of plastic stems ending up in the marine environment each year and is a huge win in the fight against marine plastic pollution.”

Emma Cunningham, of the Marine Conservation Society, said: “These are great commitments from Tesco and Sainsbury’s, but we’d like to see much more prominent ‘don’t flush’ labelling on cotton bud sticks... We found over 23 [plastic] cotton bud sticks on every 100m of beaches we cleaned in September. The message is clear: only pee, poo and paper should go down the loo.”