Free plastic bags may be banned across the whole of Europe - by Eleanor Harding

A ban on free plastic bags across the whole of Europe is being considered by Brussels.

Proposals to make shoppers pay for single-use carrier bags are to be looked at next month and could become law within two years.

The measure is a key recommendation in a green paper on plastic packaging to be published by the European Commission.

Janez Potocnik, the European Commissioner for the environment, said: ‘Fifty years ago, the single-use plastic bag was almost unheard of – now we use them for a few minutes and they pollute our environment for decades. ‘But social attitudes are evolving and there is a widespread desire for change.’

The average EU citizen gets through about 500 plastic carrier bags a year – with most of them used once, according to Brussels. The total volume produced in Europe in 2008 was 3.4million tons, but only 6 per cent were recycled.

Despite their widespread use, research suggests most Europeans want to see a clampdown on carrier bags, with two thirds of people surveyed by the Commission saying they favored an outright ban. 

Note EU-Digest: Many European grocery stores and super markets are already charging between euro 0.07 and 0.13 cents for a plastic bag and paper bags are not used at all.

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