The use of disposable bags has been drastically reduced

Nylon bags / Photo: MIA

At the moment, plastic bags are hanging in the markets "freely", and you can buy 100 pieces in bulk for 200 denars, while the "thinner" ones cost 120 denars

The use of single-use plastic bags has been reduced by over 80 percent, but it is clear that without drastic penalties, neither manufacturers nor traders will completely give up on them forever, representatives of environmental societies briefed for "Sloboden Pechat". The fight against plastic has been going on since 2013, when the Law on the Management of Packaging and Packaging Waste was passed, which prohibited the use of plastic bags. Since two years ago, we have a new law, with the same prohibition, which really "cleaned up" a serious part of plastic bags, which were polluting the environment and flying everywhere, but habits are difficult to change. Ana Karanfilovska Maznevska, head of the Department of Waste at the Ministry of Ecology, says that plastic has the largest share in total waste, but there are conflicting views on whether we should completely abandon it. On one side are the producers and the social moment, and on the other side are the environmentalists, who are advocating for the complete elimination of single-use plastics. However, Karanfilovska Maznevska adds that the state will not deviate from what it has planned - to follow European regulations and reduce plastic waste.

However, TMF professor Jadranka Blaževa Giler, who is one of the drafters of the new law on waste management, says that it is simply impossible to completely give up the use of plastic.

- It is good that we are moving towards the complete abolition of bags, which were in mass use and with which we were overwhelmed, due to the easy and cheap access to them. But we need plastic in packaging, and we need new technologies and raw materials that will be used in the production of biodegradable bags - adds Blaževa Giler.

When asked if she believes that biodegradable bags really exist, the professor replies that "they do exist, but their durability is debatable."

Environmentalists are drastically against the use of single-use plastic, which they say is designed so that it cannot be reused, sorted and recycled, and is not useful for anything other than enormous waste accumulation. In the meantime, traders' resistance to paper bags is permanent, and in the markets they don't even want to hear about packing emish and vegetables in them. At the moment, plastic bags hang "freely" in the markets, and you can buy 100 pieces in bulk for 200 denars, while the "thinner" ones cost 120 denars. Domestic manufacturers of plastic bags are outraged, because everywhere in the world people go for recycling, and only in our country there are bans and closure of companies. Of the former thirty producers, only ten "survived" the ban.

The complete elimination of single-use plastic is one of the main priorities of the European Parliament, which in 2019 adopted the Directive, which came into force in July 2021. The EU banned 10 single-use plastic products: plastic plates, cutlery, straws, coffee spoons, balloon sticks, earpicks, as well as cups and containers for food and drinks made of expanded polystyrene (commonly known as Styrofoam). By 2029, plastic bottles will have to be 90 percent made from recyclable materials.

From January 1 to December 1, 2021, more than 27 million pieces of plastic bags were sold or distributed for free, and from December 31, 2021, when the law began to be applied, until October 30, 2022, that number decreased to about 4,5 million of these bags.

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