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Bulgaria's Environment Minister, Nona Karadzhova, is taking a step forward to restrict the use of plastic bags in the country by upping their tax. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria's Environment Ministry is preparing an order aiming at restricting the use of plastic bags in the country.
Environment Minister, Nona Karadzhova, the Bulgarian Association Polymers (BAP), and several large chain stores have reached an agreement on the move to charge higher eco tax on plastic bags in order to make them more expensive and gradually eliminate them from the market.
BAP and merchants initially opposed the tax hike on grounds it would encourage "shady" import of plastic bags. However, an online poll of the Ministry shows 86% of Bulgarians are for taking plastic bags off from stores and replacing them with environmentally better options.
Experts from the Ministry have conducted a study revealing that similar measures in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada have yielded positive results, while in Ireland a EUR 0.15 tax was introduced in 2002 and led to 90% reduction of the use in plastic bags in just two years. In 2007, Belgium has banned in full their use; the same happened in Paris then, and now the ban is pending for the entire France.
Bulgaria now uses way more plastic bags per capita than many other countries.
Data from the National Statistics Institute shows that in 2007 the country produced 8 019 tons of plastic packaging or 263 per capita, compared to 65 in Germany.
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