EC asks member states to reduce the use of plastic bags

European Commission (EC) adopted today a proposal that requires member states to reduce their use of lightweight plastic carrier bags. “Member States can choose the measures they find most appropriate, including charges, national reduction targets or a ban under certain conditions”, reads the EC’s press release.

Lightweight plastic bags – most of which are used only once – can persist in the environment for hundreds of years with harmful effects, for marine life in particular. They escape waste management streams and accumulate in the environment, especially in the form of marine litter. “We’re taking action to solve a very serious and highly visible environmental problem. Every year, more than 8 billion plastic bags end up as litter in Europe, causing enormous environmental damage. Some member states have already achieved great results in terms of reducing their use of plastic bags. If others followed suit we could reduce today’s overall consumption in the European Union by as much as 80 percent,” said Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik.

The proposal amends the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive with two main elements. “First, member states are required to adopt measures to reduce the consumption of plastic carrier bags with a thickness below 50 microns, as these are less frequently reused than thicker ones, and often end up as litter. Second, these measures may include the use of economic instruments, such as charges, national reduction targets, and marketing restrictions (subject to the internal market rules of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU),” informs the EC. The high reduction rates achieved in some EU Member States, through the introduction of charges and other measures, show that results can be achieved through effective action, said EC representatives.

In 2010, an estimated 98.6 billion plastic carrier bags were placed on the EU market, which amounts to every EU citizen using 198 plastic carrier bags per year. Out of these almost 100 billion bags, the vast majority are lightweight bags, which are less frequently re-used than thicker ones. Consumption figures vary greatly between member states, with annual use per capita of lightweight plastic carrier bags ranging between an estimated 4 bags in Denmark and Finland and 466 bags in Poland, Portugal and Slovakia.

Simona Bazavan