Leading the way in reducing plastic bag use

New carrier bag charge encourages most customers to bring their own

Cyprus is on course to smash an EU directive to bring down plastic bag use per person from 140 per year to just 20 earlier than expected, said the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB).

OEB said that it is impressed with the response of Cypriots towards the compulsory charge on plastic bags at supermarkets and shops introduced on July 1.

According to a survey, up to 85% less bags were given at tills at supermarkets and 75% less at kiosks since the five cent charge on plastic carrier bags was introduced. The survey was conducted at the biggest supermarkets and a selection of kiosks islandwide.

OEB said that up to 30 June, an average of 140 plastic bags from supermarkets were used by each person per year, while the EU policy target is to reduce the use to 90 bags per person by 2019 and to 40 by 2025.

The federation said that “If the results of the first few weeks stabilise, this number will be reduced to 21 bags per person per year, which will ensure that the 2025 directive target is reached as early as 2018”. The EU directive is part of the union’s Strategy on Plastics in the cyclical economy, the aim of which is to promote radical changes in the way in which plastic products are designed, produced, used and recycled in Europe.

OEB congratulated consumers on their awareness, and their conformance to a measure which “aims at protecting the environment and sea ecosystems”. The federation also extended its congratulations to the government, and the EU for being “a worldwide pioneer in taking measures to protect the environment and tackle climate change”.

It was to the surprise of many environmentalists as well, that Cypriots took to the measure with relative ease and without a fuss as first feared.

“People have accepted the new measure without any reaction, and as a result the country’s supermarkets have handed out almost 85% less plastic carrier bags. We see people coming into the stores with their own reusable bags,” said Andreas Hadjiadamou, General Secretary of the Supermarkets Association.

He added that people were even commenting that the measure should had been introduced much earlier.

Hadjiadamou said that supermarkets had been paving the way for the implementation of the legislation, while urging people to buy one of the reusable bags sold at the counter.

“We had also organised events in cooperation with the Environmental Commissioner’s office where we gave out free reusable shopping bags and leaflets on protecting the environment through limiting plastic use,” he added.

Hadjiadamou said the association will continue its efforts to inform the public on ways to protect the environment while shopping.

Greens MP Charalambos Theopemptou, said that the charge has gone surprisingly well.

“Usually, the application of this measure is met with reactions by people who do not deem the charge necessary. This is the stage we are going through right now, but with no serious reactions apart from the few people who put forward arguments like ‘do you think charging five cents per bag will save the environment?”

Theopemptou said that Parliament’s environmental committee will be revaluating the situation after a few months to decide on whether more measures will be necessary to further reduce the use of plastic bags in stores across the island.

He said that MPs may

even

consider putting the price up or completely prohibit the use of plastic bags altogether.

The former environmental commissioner added that the fight against the use of plastic materials which contaminated the environment does not end with reducing the use of the plastic bag.

“The European Commission has issued a list of another ten products, the use of which must at least be reduced. Amongst them baby wipes, cotton earbuds, fishermen’s nets and plastic fibre found in clothes,” said Theopemptou.

The five-cent surcharge is on every plastic bag given for carrying goods at cash tills, at all outlets including pharmacies, kiosks, bakeries and specialty stores.

Small nylon bags and bags used to hold fruit, meat or vegetables are not charged.

It was supposed to begin six months earlier, when January 2018 was the deadline set by the European Union. without leaving any harmful residues, as Mr Bin Brand Manager Anastis Pourgouris told the Financial Mirror.

Pourgouris said that people have not only stopped using plastic bags from supermarkets, but to some extent, ditched using the harmful bags altogether.

He said that his company has seen sales of toilet bin bags increase substantially compared to July 2017. “We all used to use supermarket bags for our bathroom bins and other house bins. People still prefer to use bags for their bins, but opt for more environmentally friendly bags,” said Pourgouris.

Pourgouris said that the company just a year ago relaunched the Mr. Bin brand by introducing bags with even less plastic than previously. He added that the company is on the lookout for options which will make their bags even friendlier to the environment.

Eureka is one of the companies making up the GreenDot public venture and is campaigning to raise awareness over recycling and reusing. He said that Eureka have stands in supermarkets informing people on how to recycle and reuse products bought at supermarkets.

“During March, April and May we radio campaigns on recycling composting,” said Pourgouris.

Money collected from plastic bag tariff will go to a special fund operated by GreenDot and managed by the Department of the Environment to be invested in public environmental awareness campaigns.

Lidl Cyprus said it will be the first supermarket to stop selling its disposable plastic bags altogether from January 1, 2019.

The world is currently producing nearly 300 million tons of plastic each year - a large amount of which will end up in the oceans.

Although plastic is a useful product, many of these products are created for single-use - with an estimated 50% of plastic used once and thrown away.

Not only is this harmful to the environment and the oceans, but it is also harmful to wildlife - where it impacts nearly 700 species in the ocean, and humans.

Ingesting plastic has life-threatening effects on wildlife - and this plastic eventually ends up being digested by humans.

And half of all plastic manufactured becomes trash in less than a year. ran and