Government should ban the sale of baby and personal care wipes containing plastic in the UK by April 2022. Following DEFRA’s ban on single-use plastic straws, cotton buds and stirrers, wet wipes containing plastic should also be phased out and replaced with plastic-free, sustainable alternatives.
You may be interested in these active petitions
90% of the 11bn wipes sold in the UK contain plastic. They take 100+ years to degrade, leaving microplastics. Single-use plastic wipes are also behind 93% of sewer-clogging fatbergs, costing the taxpayer millions of pounds annually, and are the third most common marine litter item in the UK. Microplastic filters into our food chain and has even been found inside human placentas, potentially causing foetal damage. Government intervention is needed to drive forward change that is happening too slowly.