The government decided Friday to ban in principle the use of plastic straws and cutlery in its cafeterias and to stop passing out plastic bottles to conference attendees — its latest policy on environmentally friendly procurement.
The policy will be applied to all central government institutions, including ministries, courts and regional bureaus, when they start signing new procurement agreements from April. The move comes as Japan seeks to showcase its efforts to reduce plastic waste ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in June.
Under the revised Basic Policy on Promoting Green Procurement, shops in government buildings will only be permitted to give customers bags made with a certain amount of natural materials. Plastic cutlery, however, will only be given to customers if requested.