Items in the European Union’s cross hairs: drinking straws, plastic bottles, coffee cups and lids — none of which were available to shoppers browsing the new aisle in western Amsterdam on Wednesday.

Plastic packaging has become so widespread as a result of its convenience and qualities of hygiene. But because of its light weight and ability to float, along with its increasing use in international garbage exports, plastic has become an ecological bane.

“One man’s plastic food wrapper is another man’s problem,” Ms. Sutherland said.

The proposals from the European Union and from Britain landed on the heels of a Chinese ban on all foreign plastic waste imports, which began in January.

Rwanda has also begun a campaign that threatened public shaming and even prison time to tackle the plastics problem, making it illegal to import, produce, use or sell plastic bags and plastic packaging except within specific industries like hospitals and pharmaceuticals.

The nation is one of more than 40 around the world that have banned, restricted or taxed the use of plastic bags, including France and Italy.

In a study published last year, scientists estimated that 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic has been produced worldwide since the 1950s, when plastic began being mass produced. Of that, roughly 6.3 billion metric tons has been thrown away, 79 percent of it in landfills or in other parts of the environment.

Only 9 percent of the discarded plastic has been recycled, according to the study, whose lead author is Roland Geyer of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara.