EU wants to reduce wastage of plastic bags

Last week the European Par­lia­ment adop­ted a report to demon­strate its sup­port for decis­ive action to reduce the con­sump­tion of light­weight plastic car­ri­er bags in Europe. European Bioplastics sup­ports the out­come of the vote and the cor­res­pond­ing pro­vi­sions for com­postable plastic car­ri­er bags. François de Bie, Chair­man of European Bioplastics, com­men­ted: ​“We are very glad that the European Par­lia­ment recog­nises the value com­postable car­ri­er bags can provide to enhance a sep­ar­ate biowaste col­lec­tion across Europe. Switch­ing from light­weight single-use fossil-based car­ri­er bags to EN 13432 cer­ti­fied com­postable dual-use shop­ping bags helps to divert biowaste from land­fill.” The Parliament’s report exempts very light­weight car­ri­er bags (below 10 micron thick­ness) from the scope of any meas­ures and requires their pro­gress­ive replace­ment with bio­de­grad­able and com­postable bags. It also allows Mem­ber States with exist­ing sep­ar­ate col­lec­tion of biowaste to reduce the price of bio­de­grad­able and com­postable light­weight car­ri­er bags by up to 50 per­cent. ​“Cre­at­ing a clear reg­u­lat­ive frame­work for bioplastics products will accel­er­ate the bene­fits our industry will bring to envir­on­ment, eco­nomy, and soci­ety. Be it biobased plastics in dur­able products that func­tion as a car­bon sink, or com­postable short-term plastic applic­a­tions that help to increase waste stream effi­ciency, the European bioplastics industry offers innov­a­tion, future jobs and an oppor­tun­ity for Europe to stay com­pet­it­ive in indus­tri­al bio­tech­no­logy,” urges de Bie. Source: European Bioplastics