The plastics law, revisited
The Europeans | European news, politics and culture
Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer
4.8 • 162 Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2021
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A whole bunch of plastic objects are about to become illegal across the European Union: everything from coffee stirrers to straws and cotton buds. As we count down to the big day on July 3, we're revisiting last year's special episode about how the EU is even able to make laws like this for 27 countries. This week we're asking: "How the hell do you make an EU law?"
Originally released in February 2020, this episode was part of our mini-series Bursting the Bubble, an attempt to explain how EU institutions work in the least boring way possible. Huge thanks to the European Cultural Foundation for funding this series. They support projects that promote Europe as an open and democratic space.
Written and produced by Katz Laszlo, with help from Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi Katie. |
| 0:07.0 | Hi Katie. |
| 0:23.9 | Sup. That's a joke on what we're about to talk about. |
| 0:27.1 | Oh, a hilarious joke. |
| 0:30.1 | Thank you. How you doing? |
| 0:31.7 | I am fine and very excited to be talking about single-use plastics again. |
| 0:36.9 | Yes, a huge moment this week. |
| 0:39.1 | We have decided that we have finally been making this podcast for long enough to justify |
| 0:43.5 | rerunning an old episode. |
| 0:45.6 | We're cheating! |
| 0:46.6 | There is a good reason for it, though. |
| 0:48.3 | It has come to our attention that a very high-profile European law, |
| 0:52.5 | what we made a special episode about last year, |
| 0:55.0 | is finally coming into force after all this time. |
| 0:58.1 | Yes, sup the single-use plastics directive. |
| 1:02.5 | And as of the 3rd of July, this law will be in force across all 27 EU countries. |
| 1:09.5 | What does that mean? |
| 1:14.8 | Well, the most obvious thing is that a bunch of different plastic products will no longer be available across the whole of this continent. No more plastic cups |
| 1:22.1 | or plastic cutlery. If you have the urge to buy any plastic balloon sticks, now is the time to do it before July the 3rd. |
| 1:29.0 | Katie, you shouldn't be encouraging people to buy plastic things. |
| 1:31.6 | I'm not encouraging them, I'm just saying they're not going to be available anymore. |
| 1:35.0 | Anyway, the fact that the EU managed to agree on this law felt like a pretty big deal back in 2019. |
... |
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