In environmental news, European lawmakers have voted to ban single-use plastics in an effort to reduce ocean pollution. The ban includes plastic cutlery, straws and disposable plates and would take effect starting in 2021. This is EU lawmaker Frédérique Ries.

Frédérique Ries: “What are the objects we have most often found on the beaches? That’s single-use plastic. And secondly, are there inexpensive alternatives that are accessible? If that’s the case, then we’ll change. It’s not complicated. It’s disfiguring our beaches. It’s killing our oceans. It’s killing animals. It ends up in fishes’ stomachs and kills them. And at the end of the day, it ends up inside our bodies. There’s an impact on human health. There are alternatives which exist, which are not expensive and are often European, so we just change things.”

The regulations still have to be approved by individual governments before becoming law.