Petition · past parliament
All Plastic Packaging to be classified as Toxic Waste.
Rejected
10 signatures
What the petition asks
Millions of tons of packaging plastic end up in our oceans killing billions of sea life creatures & sea birds. Additionally Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) found in many food & drink packaging plastics is proposed to have an estrogenic activity in the human endocrine system. Plastic is Toxic.
PCB effects study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1480489/
Plastic in our oceans
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/what-we-do/oceans/plastics/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1480489/
Plastic in our oceans
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/what-we-do/oceans/plastics/
Why it was rejected
It was not clear what the petition asked the UK Government or Parliament to do.
We can't accept your petition because we aren't sure what action you would like the UK Government or Parliament to take. It's not clear how you would like plastic to be treated differently.
The UK doesn't classify waste as "toxic". Some waste is defined as hazardous. This is subject to different waste labelling rules and may require certain special disposal depending on its nature:
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-classify-different-types-of-waste
You could start a new petition setting out clearly what rules you think there should be around the disposal of plastic waste.
The UK doesn't classify waste as "toxic". Some waste is defined as hazardous. This is subject to different waste labelling rules and may require certain special disposal depending on its nature:
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-classify-different-types-of-waste
You could start a new petition setting out clearly what rules you think there should be around the disposal of plastic waste.
Timeline
| 22 Mar 2019 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 15 Apr 2019 | Rejected by the Petitions Committee |
Key facts
Signatures
10
Status
Rejected
Rejected
15 Apr 2019
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.