Mexico City — The sale, distribution and delivery of one-use, non-biodegradable plastic utensils became illegal in the Mexican capital on Jan. 1, a year after a plastic bag ban took effect in the city.
The 66-member legislative branch of the Mexico City government approved the bans in May 2019. Industry association Anipac argued that many of the dozen or so prohibited items are crucial to public health and called for the bans to be postponed, but the government was undeterred.
In a statement posted on the Secretariat of the Environment's website, Andrée Lilian Guigue Pérez, who evaluates the impact of regulations on the environment, said the government had been swayed by the World Health Organization's finding that the coronavirus behind COVID-19 survives on plastic surfaces for four days.
It was advisable, therefore, to wash and re-use durable products and materials to avoid the "negative impact on the environment of disposable products."
Anipac (Asociación Nacional de Industrias del Plástico A.C.) complained in early December that its recommendations on the matter had been ignored. "Our proposals are heard and never taken into account," the association's Managing Director Raúl Mendoza Tapia said.