Plastic bags to cost NIS 0.10 from Jan 1

plastic bags Photo: Avshalom Sassoni
plastic bags Photo: Avshalom Sassoni

Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection will subsidize reusable shopping bags.

Starting on January 1, 2017, consumers in Israel will pay NIS 0.10 for a plastic food bag at supermarkets. The measure is designed to reduce the use of environmentally damaging plastic bags.

The law is intended to foster reusable shopping bags. In Europe, consumers have learned that plastic bags cost money, and many of them pay far more than the price stipulated by the new law in Israel.

The figures show that 2.2 billion disposable plastic bags are used annually in Israel, amounting to 350-400 bags per capita. These bags eventually become polluting waste. The average in Europe is 200 bags per capita.

The European Union's goal is to reduce per capita consumption of disposable plastic bags to 90 by 2019 and 40 by 2025.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection is conducting a NIS 29 million campaign offering the large supermarket chains monetary support for distributing reusable bags even before the law goes into effect. The subsidy will total NIS 1.50 for each bag distributed, and NIS 1.60 for each bag purchased from an Israeli company. Distribution will be according to amount of a customer's purchase. In other words, from December 19, 2016 until December 31, 2016, a customer making a purchase for NIS 100-250 will receive one free bag, a customer making a purchase for NIS 250-400 will receive two free bags, and so forth.

Ministry of Environmental Protection deputy director general Guy Samet explains that the law is designed to teach consumers to take shopping bags with them when they shop. "The figures show that half of all the plastic bags consumed are received by consumers from the large supermarket chains during a planned shopping trip.

"Our aim is to induce consumers to keep reusable shopping bags in their cars, so that they become a permanent feature of their trip to the supermarket. We're making a statement even before a single shekel accumulates in the fund (the supermarket chains will put the difference in their profit from the consumers' payments for the bags into the fund) in order to make the adjustment to this important law as smooth as possible."

The law in question exempts the pharmacy chains; it applies to the 20 largest supermarket chains, as these are defined in the Food Law.

Samet added, "In most countries in which the law was applied, there was a substantial reduction in consumption of plastic bags." He cited Ireland as an example, where the consumption of plastic bags, which was on the same scale as in Israel before the law was passed, has now been reduced to 21 plastic bags a year per capita. Consumers pay $0.15 per bag in Ireland.

The case of Ireland differs from Israel, where the price of a plastic bag was originally set at NIS 0.30 per bag, but was later reduced to NIS 0.10 initially. "We expect a reduction in consumption, but we don't know what its extent will be," Samet said.

"Studies show that 40-60% of the public will be indifferent due to the low price, but we are providing to tools to avoid this indifference, among other things through the use of reusable shopping bags," Samet concluded.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 4, 2016

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016

plastic bags Photo: Avshalom Sassoni
plastic bags Photo: Avshalom Sassoni
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