Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
bag problem, ranging from traditional controls such as bans, voluntary codes of
practice and marketing of alternative bags, to economic tools such as taxes or levies.
The African countries of Eritrea, Zanzibar, and Somaliland have banned plastic bags.
Bangladesh, China, many States/Union Territories in India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea,
Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand have also banned the use of plastic bags of a certain
size and thickness. North America, San Francisco in the USA and Leaf Rapids and
Manitoba in Canada have banned plastic bags. In an attempt to reduce the use of the
most disposable thin bags, minimum thickness rules (i.e., a partial ban) are in place
in South Africa (which also applied a tax to the use of thicker non-banned bags and
also a ine of 10,000−15,000 $US or a ten year jail term to the retailers who violate
the rules), Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. Similar restrictions are under consideration
in Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho and Tanzania [25-30].
The most successful regulatory case studies come from Ireland, Italy and Denmark
where economic instruments were applied. A €0.15 levy or surcharge is imposed
on plastic bags provided by grocery stores and other shops, which reduced bag
use by 90%. Italy had also introduced a €0.06 tax (about ive-fold higher than
the production cost) on plastic bags, making the bags more expensive than their
'eco-friendly' alternatives. Denmark applied their taxation approach to reduce plastic
bag use within a larger packaging tax framework, and at the point where retailers
purchase the bags from manufacturers or wholesalers, which helped in reducing the
plastic bag use by about 66% in Denmark [30].
In Canada, most major grocery chain stores accept plastic bags for recycling [30]
as a voluntary measure. Such voluntary recycling initiatives are being used in Egypt
and Senegal as well [31]. Australia has used a combination of consumer awareness,
anti-litter programmes, and codes of practice coupled with littering ines (ranging
from 60−4,000 A$). Unfortunately, there is little information available on which to
assess the potential effectiveness of voluntary control measures.
Numerous instruments have been used around the world to manage the problems
associated with plastic bags, with various degrees of success (
Table 5.4
). The
instruments range from such command and control tools as: outright bans, economic
instruments such as a levy, to voluntary schemes such as codes of practice and
promotion of alternative bags.
