Mexico City With 9 Million People, Enacts New Ban on Single-use Plastics and Straws in 2021

In Mexico City, after more than a year of preparation work, a ban which focuses mainly on single-use containers, cutlery, straws, cups, stirrers and other popular but disposable items has come into effect. Mexico City’s environmental secretary explained via Twitter that the country’s capital will from now be a place “without single-use plastics,” and urged the citizens to think of reusable containers as something they never leave the home without—just like they might do with cell phones. Lawmakers of the city actually passed the single-use plastics ban back in 2019: a year in which the city was producing up to 13,000 tons of pastic-related garbage a day.

The city, with a population of around 9 million, saw the ban on single-use plastic bags come into effect last year. Since then, business owners have been preparing for the ban on other day-to-day disposable items. With Coronavirus guidelines in mind, even tortillas at street stalls should be wrapped in the paper that a buyer has—hopefully—remembered to bring with them.

The Mexican capital isn’t the only populous place to introduce such a ban recently. China is also aiming to reduce plastic pollution by moving towards using biodegradable alternatives to single-use plastic straws and bags.