Brussels, 31/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 31 March, a further step was taken towards the adoption of European legislation aiming to limit the consumption of lightweight disposable plastic bags, which pollute the oceans and seas of the EU. Agreeing with its rapporteur Margrete Auken (Greens/EFA, Denmark), the European Parliament environment committee gave its approval to the compromise struck in November of last year between the Parliament and the Council on the draft directive aiming to modify Directive 94/62/EEC on packaging and packaging waste to this end (see EUROPE 11268). The agreement was capproved by a wide majority (54 votes to 2, with 6 abstentions).
Lightweight plastic bags refers to bags of a thickness of less than 50 µm.
“This is the first time ever we have agreed on ambitious measures to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the environment. This is good news for the environment and all Europeans who expected the EU to take ambitious action on plastic bags”, said Auken. She went on to stress that “front-running countries have demonstrated that dramatically reducing the consumption of these disposable bags is easily achievable with coherent policy. Swiftly phasing-out these bags is a readily-implementable solution to the pervasive problem of plastic waste in the environment”.
The ball is now in the court of the European Parliament as a whole, which will take position at its plenary session to be held in Strasbourg from 27 to 30 April.
Under the text agreed upon, the member states of the EU will be able to choose between charged for these bags by 2018 and reducing average annual consumption to 90 per citizen by the end of 2019 (compared to 176 today) and to 40 by the end of 2025. The member states will report back on the annual consumption of these plastic bags three years after the directive enters into force.
It will be the responsibility of the European Commission to assess the impact on the environment of oxo-degradable plastic bags (which fragment into small particles and which are neither recyclable nor compostable) and to propose measures. The Commission will also assess the impact of the various options to reduce the consumption of extremely lightweight plastic bags (less than 15 µm). It will also establish technical specifications for the labelling of biodegradable and compostable plastic bags.
More than 8 billion disposable plastic bags end up as waste in the oceans of the EU every year. According to Eurobarometer survey, 92% of European citizens are in favour of measures to tackle this scourge. (Aminata Niang)