Plastic wet wipes will be banned in Wales to reduce environmental harm following a vote in the Senedd. <\/p>\n
From December 2026, it will be an offence to supply wet wipes containing plastic to customers.<\/p>\n
A motion was passed in a plenary session of all 60 members, with no objections.<\/p>\n
There will be an exemption for medical-grade wipes and the ban does not extend to business-to-business. <\/p>\n
Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said the vote was another step towards reducing the environmental harm caused by plastic and microplastic pollution. <\/p>\n
The regulations add plastic wet wipes to a 2023 law prohibiting a list of single-use plastic products.<\/p>\n
Irranca-Davies said the impact of wet wipe pollution is tangible, and it is long-lasting. <\/p>\n
“Taking decisive action will encourage manufacturers, retailers and consumers of the need to continue our shift towards reusable and non-plastic products,” he said. <\/p>\n
He told Senedd members the ban will not extend to business-to-business supply, only covering supply to consumers as with other single-use plastics. <\/p>\n
“Wet wipes for specific industrial use, where plastic-free alternatives are unsuitable or do not exist, are not included,” he added.<\/p>\n
“But we will encourage these sectors to innovate.”<\/p>\n
He added there was an exemption for medical-grade wet wipes that do contain plastic which are designed or manufactured for use in medical care or treatment. <\/p>\n
There is an 18-month transition period that will allow manufacturers time to adapt their business, as he welcomed the cross-party support for the ban.<\/p>\n
Conservative MS Janet Finch-Saunders welcomed the move and said wipes continue to contribute to a significant number of sewage blockages, causing overspills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plastic wet wipes will be banned in Wales to reduce environmental harm following a vote in the Senedd.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-197087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114709954800574396","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}