The European Parliament has backed plans to slash the use of plastic shopping bags which, carelessly thrown away, end up as unsightly litter and pollute the environment.
Environmentalists estimate that each citizens uses an average of nearly 200 plastic bags a year and want that cut by at least 80% by 2019.
The initial target is a cut of 50% by 2017 compared with 2010 levels when some eight billion such bags ended up as rubbish.
The EU directive leaves it up to individual member states whether to ban, tax or charge for thin plastic bags. But the aim is to halve their use by 2017, compared to 2010 levels. The final target is to reduce their use by 80% by 2019.
The proposals call on member states to use taxes, levies, marketing restrictions or outright bans to end what has become a scourge of modern living.
Some 100 billion plastic bags are used in the EU every year, which amounts to around 200 per person. Eight billion of these carrier bags end up as litter.
Denmark, where bags are taxed, boasts the lowest use of single-use plastic bags in the European Union.
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling
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