Plastic Bag Levy

by Meira in Issues, December 12, 2009

Packaging is one of the biggest industries today. Every single day millions of more plastic bags are added to the environment after a few minutes of use phase. While they are said to be “thrown away”, “away” essentially means they are away from our sight. But, they still stay in the environment, usually a poor community.

Unfortunately, the most effective ways to reduce plastic bag use is by introducing a charge on bags. People tend to overuse things that are free. This article discusses one such example of plastic bag levy in Ireland and its success story.

The Menace of Plastic Packaging:

Plastic, due to its durability, light weight, chemical-resistance, insulating properties and versatility once revolutionized the packaging industry. However, the very same qualities of plastic packaging have now become the root cause of major environmental and aesthetical damage to our planet. Being cheap and readily available, plastic bags are discarded very frequently, increasing solid waste problems at an enormous rate. Virgin plastic bags are used at an insane rate in supermarkets. Packaging, alone, constitutes 35% of the total plastic consumption in the world.

In order to rid its environment of plastic garbage, the Mayo County Council in Ireland, enforced the Irish Plastic Bag Levy in 2002. This was recently revised to entitle retailers to charge a 22% tax from customers wishing to get plastic bags while making purchases. Except for certain exemptions on fish, meat, poultry, loose fruits/vegetables/nuts, ice, unwrapped confectionary and cooked food, all other items are subject to the 22% levy for plastic carrier bags. Moreover, specific dimensions have been established for the bags which are 450 mm x 225 mm x 45 mm.

This tax is in conformity with the environmental law of ‘Polluter Pays’ wherein the party causing any environmental damage is liable to pay for its rectification. The levy gives an incentive to the consumers for bringing reusable bags while shopping. The Mayo County Council’s Environment Enforcement Staff ensures that the environmental objectives of this law are accomplished by keeping a check on retailers and shoppers across the County.

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Change brought about by the Law:

In the aftermath of the implementation of the law, the Mayo County has seen almost 95% decrease in the distribution of plastic bags at retail shops and hence 95% reduction in plastic solid waste disposal problems.

The funds collected from this anti-litter initiative of the Council are, in turn used to finance the development of recycling and waste recovery infrastructure, running environment awareness campaigns and increasing enforcement of the levy by local authorities.