Plastic bags

31.3.2015

Question for written answer E-005348-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Daniel Buda (PPE)

Annually, each EU citizen uses around 198 plastic bags, which brings the total to 100 billion bags used. According to ecologists, consumers use these bags for an average of 20 minutes, while their degradation takes 1 000 years.

Off all the EU countries, only Italy has prohibited since 2011 the production and marketing of plastic bags. If disposable plastic bags were prohibited across the EU, annual savings would amount to EUR 64 million, representing money allocated for the collection and disposal of these bags, and EUR 57 million allocated for the collection, recycling and disposal of all types of plastic bags.

Does the Commission envisage the prohibition, by means of a directive, of the manufacture and marketing of disposable plastic bags, for the purposes of protecting nature, but also in order to generate savings in this sector?