If the response to the European Commission’s 2011 consultation is in any way representative, a large majority of EU citizens favour some type of ban on plastic carrier bags. Last year, the Commission sought input on how to reduce consumption, asking whether charging and taxation or an outright ban would be preferable and whether the rules should apply to non-biodegradables and biodegradables alike – see Plasteurope.com of 24.05.2011. Whether or not the sampling is big enough to be statistically relevant, the results, which will guide the EU in revising its packaging directive, are surely not music to the ears of bag manufacturers.

Some 65% of the more than 15,500 respondents – for the most part (97%) private citizens – said they “strongly” agreed that action on plastic carrier bags at EU level was necessary, and nearly 47% strongly agreed that targets for preventing plastic waste should include a “significant reduction.” Almost 53% preferred an outright ban on all carrier bags, with 31% saying that having to pay for bags would be an effective instrument and 57% saying that the EU should determine the charge.

Almost 58% of those returning the EU’s questionnaire believed that an exemption should be made for biodegradable bags, while some 23% thought all types of plastic carrier bags should be banned. Only 12% felt that the current packaging directive is adequate to deal with the problem of disposables. When the Commission asked whether the label “biodegradable” should be awarded only to bags that degraded in soil or water, 56% strongly agreed. Another 48% strongly agreed that a mandatory EU labelling system should identify biodegradability to consumers.

The Commission estimates that 3.4m t of plastic carrier bags were produced in the EU-27 in 2008 – equivalent to the weight of about 2m passenger cars – and that the “average” EU citizen consumes about 500 single-trip bags per year. The bags’ low weight and small size “means that they often escape waste management systems and end up in the marine environment,” the Commission said.

Bag manufacturers organised in European Plastic Films, a sub-segment of the association European Plastics Converters (EuPC, Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticsconverters.eu), have challenged the accuracy of the Commission’s figures as well as the “legitimacy” of its public consultation. Tossing figures of its own into the equation, the films group argues that consumption of all plastic bags in the EU is only a third of the 1.8m t it believes was produced there in 2008. The UK, it adds, consumes around 100 bags per person a year, similar to figures in Austria and Germany, while France consumes only 15-30. In all the countries, it says, reuse “is the norm.”

A number of member states already have their own, highly divergent, regulations for plastic carrier bags in place, the Commission notes. However, no uniform rules yet exist at EU level, and bags are not regulated under any version of the European Packaging Directive. Few European countries actually ban the bags outright, although some tax importers and sellers, who pass on the often hefty fees to shoppers.

Separately, US biopolymers producer Cereplast (El Segundo, California; www.cereplast.com) and EuPC have compiled rough guides to plastic bag regulations in EU member countries. Cereplast’s guide also spotlights the history of measures to combat bag littering or attempts to do so. It sees Corsica as pioneering a bag ban in large stores in 2002, with the rest of France not taking up the ball for another a decade. In 2005, a vote by French lawmakers to ban non-biodegradable plastic carrier bags from 2010 onward law was challenged by EuPC on grounds it violated the European Packaging Directive.

Cereplast credits Bangladesh with being the first large country to ban all PE bags, in 2002, and San Francisco the first US city to ban plastic bags, in 2007. In 2010, Italy’s decision to banish non-biodegradable carrier bags from retail outlets effective 1 January 2011 – see Plasteurope.com of 05.01.2011 – made waves. This regulation was also challenged by EuPC as well as British bag producers – see Plasteurope.com of 14.01.2011.

In Switzerland, a parliamentary initiative to ban non-recyclable, single-trip plastic carrier bags failed after, EuPC says, “the plans were determined not to be sensible.” As in Germany, Swiss retailers charge for plastic bags at check-out without any government legislation in place. In summer 2011 Austrian environment minister Nikolaus Berlakovich proposed that all the country’s major supermarket chains switch to carrier bags made of bioplastics. However, progress is said to be negligible as the country is still grappling with recycling issues. Austria consumes an estimated 5,000-6,000 plastic bags annually.

Bulgaria recently became the latest member of the European regulation “club”, implementing a progressive tax on production and import of non-biodegradable plastic carrier bags less than 15 microns thick in October 2011. In 2012 the tax rose to BGN 0.35 (just under EUR 0.18) and will peak at BGN 0.55 (EUR 0.28) in 2014. Bulgarians are estimated to consume around 1.2 bn plastic bags annually, and with fees relatively high, Cereplast unsurprisingly sees the country as “the next opportunity” for its biodegradable products.

Since 1993, Denmark has taxed plastic, as well as paper, carrier bags at a rate equivalent to EUR 3/kg. Belgium in 2007 introduced a “green tax”, also EUR 3/kg, on single-trip plastic carrier bags, thereby exempting reusable and biodegradable bags. This tax, says EuPC, has prompted retailers to charge for single-use bags. In The Netherlands, consumers pay EUR 0.25 per single-trip carrier bag.

Ireland has had a levy on disposable plastic shopping bags in place since 2002. Initially EUR 0.15 per bag, the fee has since been raised to EUR 0.22 – see Plasteurope.com of 28.07.2011. No differentiation is made between biodegradable and non-biodegradable bags. Cereplast says that while Ireland’s use of the disposable carrier bags has been reduced by about 90% from around 328 per person annually since the tax was implemented, and plastic bag litter has decreased by 95%, a creeping rise in consumption necessitated an increase in the tax.

Regulatory moves are also afoot in the UK, where public sentiment against littering is growing. The government has threatened to introduce an “eco tax” on plastic bags similar to that planned in Northern Ireland. There, the Department of the Environment (DOE, Belfast; www.doeni.gov.uk) in July 2011 opened a public consultation as part of a plan to levy a charge on single-use bags from April 2013. The plans were criticised by the British Plastics Federation (BPF, London / UK; www.bpf.co.uk) as “inappropriate” – see Plasteurope.com of 26.08.2011.

On 1 October 2011, Wales became the first UK country to introduce fees for single use carrier bags (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2010/2880/contents/made). The minimum charge is GBP 0.05. Wales is estimated to consume 480m plastic bags per year, including 273m distributed by grocery stores. Plans to introduce a bag tax in Scotland were abandoned in 2006 (see Plasteurope.com of 18.10.2006), but the Scottish government (Edinburgh; www.scotland.gov.uk) included a possible levy in its consultation on waste management last year.

Consumers in the Baltic states are being strongly urged to take their own bags on shopping trips. Estonia’s charge for disposables will rise from EUR 0.19 to EUR 0.35 under draft legislation. Latvia is proposing to raise the natural resource tax on plastic shopping bags in order to curb use. A reduced tax would be applied to degradables.

Portugal and Spain also are seeking to curb the use of plastic carrier bags as a means of increasing environmental awareness. The Portuguese parliament has set a 90% reduction target for production and use of single-trip plastic carrier bags distributed at wholesale and retail outlets. While the law is not due to take full effect until 2017, intermediate goals are for a 30% and 60% reduction by 2013 and 2015 respectively. Portugal is offering the powerful incentive of a EUR 0.05 discount for consumers who bring their own bags to stores.

Spain has revised its national packaging legislation with the intent of promoting reusable carrier bags and substituting disposables. By 2013, some 60% of plastic bags must be biodegradable, and the target for 2016 is 80%. By 2018, single-use plastic bags will be banned, except for those used to store fish. There are no nationally harmonised regulations as yet in Poland, where an initial stab by the city of Lodz at banning disposable plastic bags was declared unconstitutional following a protest by EuPC. However, the environment ministry has drawn up an amendment to packaging legislation set to take effect from 2015.

In Cyprus, estimated to consume 2,000 t of plastic bags annually – an average of 300 per adult per year according to the newspaper “Cyprus Mail” – all efforts to limit use have had scant effect. However, in response to public demand, many private firms have begun offering reusable bags and some local authorities have declared “bag-free” zones.