From October the government will ban many plastic items commonly used in food businesses.

It is estimated England uses 2.7 billion items of single use cutlery and 72 million single use plates per year.

The new ban will include single use plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks. It will apply to retail, takeaway, food vendors and hospitality. A government consultation saw over 95% of responses in favour of this change.

There are alternatives for businesses, these include swapping to:

• bamboo or wooden cutlery
• bamboo or palm leaf plates
• use metal cutlery in house
• larger self service reusable sauce pots
• refill customer water bottles and coffee cups and encourage them to bring own containers or takeway food (check if clean!)