Environment MEPs Back Plans To Cut Plastic Bag Waste

摘要

Eu states will have to reduce the consumption of most common and polluting plastic bags by 80 percent by 2019, under draft rules backed by the Environment Committee. MEPs recommend using economic instruments such as taxes and levies, marketing restrictions or bans. Plastic carrier bag litter is a major environmental concern, known to affect water bodies and aquatic eco-systems in particular, the EU Commission says. MEPs say that lightweight plastic bags with a thickness below 50 microns, which represent the vast majority of plastic carrier bags consumed in the EU, are less re-usable than thicker models and become waste more quickly.