Plastic bags will disappear from stores? – Polish Radio

– This is an important step towards overcoming the habit of consumers. 90 per cent. plastic bags are thrown away; 8 billion of such bags end their “life” in nature and in landfills. It’s a scandal, for which we are responsible – said before the vote in Strasbourg Hungarian MEP Gyoergy Hoelvenyi of the European People’s Party.
Limitation, which passed the EP, is to cover plastic shopping bags with foil with a thickness less than 50 microns. An exception will be a lightweight plastic bags necessary for hygienic reasons (eg. When the seller packed into no meat or cheese weight) or when their use will reduce food waste.
The simplest would be to introduce fees for “commercials”
EU Member States will be obliged to use one of two mechanisms: either determine to reduce the number of plastic bags consumed for an average of 90 units a year per capita at the end of 2019. and up to 40 pieces at the end of 2025., or the imposition to the end 2018. fees or taxes which will encourage customers to reduce the number of bags consumed. Choosing one or the other mechanism is left to member states.
In practice, the simplest way to implement the recommendations of the EU force will be the introduction of fees for “commercials” that now in many stores get at the cash register for free. – So did Ireland, making use of plastic bags in that country dropped by 90 percent. – He stressed at a meeting with journalists conducting negotiations on behalf of Parliament with the European Commission and the member states on this issue MEP Margrete Auken of the Greens.
Since its introduction in 2002 in Ireland charge for plastic bags Irishman consumes their annual average of 20 pieces. In Poland, Hungary and Portugal in the same period, per capita accounted for 466 of disposable bags.
Commission during the work pointed out that in eight EU countries lack such. data which would allow to set reliable binding targets for reducing the use of plastic bags. After the regulations come into force, what is going to happen in May, the Commission will have one year to develop a system of counting the consumption of plastic bags per capita.
“It’s a symbol of a society that wastes resources”
The European Commissioner for. Karmenu Vella stressed environment during Wednesday’s debate in the European Parliament that year in the EU is also consumed 100 billion of such bags. – That is a waste of resources. It is a symbol of a society that wastes resources – said Vella.
Disposable plastic bags are a serious problem for the environment. Time distribution of such waste dates back several hundred years, and are often used only for a few minutes.

IAR / PAP, bless