BRUSSELS (AA) – European Union Commission on Monday adopted a proposal that requires member states to reduce their use of lightweight plastic carrier bags.
EU member states will choose the measures they find most appropriate, including charges, national reduction targets or a ban under certain conditions.
Lightweight plastic bags are often used only once, but can persist in the environment for hundreds of years, often as harmful microscopic particles that are known to be dangerous to marine life in particular.
"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," said Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik. "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 EU by as much as 80%."
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.
Annual consumption figures vary 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.
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