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Mar 28, 2016
Proposed Law: Less plastic bags
The Interior Committee of the Knesset approved a law proposal in the system to be moved to the Knesset plenum for second and third sets of voting for passage this week. The law it approved is the law meant to minimize the number of plastic bags in use by the public.
The law proposed initially was meant to do away completely with plastic bags by forcing supermarkets to charge a lot of money per bag. The proposal was adjusted and now will force supermarkets to charge just 10 agorot per plastic bag. As well, the law will only apply to large supermarket chains and not to local neighborhood small shops. These changes will effect the minimization of the use of plastic bag use, and not become a burden to the public.
Also, supposedly the use of plastic bags cost the supermarket chains about 88 million nis per year. The public pays for that through higher prices on the items bought in the stores. Supposedly, saving most of that money for the supermarket chains will allow them to lower prices.
sources: Ch10 and Ladaat
Ha ha ha. I can't wait to see if a single supermarket lowers prices after this law is completed.
I am not much of an environmentalist. I use plastic bags, though I try to reuse them as much as possible. I recycle, but only when it is not overly difficult,... so I don't really have much of a problem with plastic bags and the entire issue. If they ban it, fine, if not - not. What I don't get is this contradictory position - we want to get rid of them but not make it too difficult for people so we will let them continue using them. Either get rid of them or leave us alone.
The law proposed initially was meant to do away completely with plastic bags by forcing supermarkets to charge a lot of money per bag. The proposal was adjusted and now will force supermarkets to charge just 10 agorot per plastic bag. As well, the law will only apply to large supermarket chains and not to local neighborhood small shops. These changes will effect the minimization of the use of plastic bag use, and not become a burden to the public.
Also, supposedly the use of plastic bags cost the supermarket chains about 88 million nis per year. The public pays for that through higher prices on the items bought in the stores. Supposedly, saving most of that money for the supermarket chains will allow them to lower prices.
sources: Ch10 and Ladaat
Ha ha ha. I can't wait to see if a single supermarket lowers prices after this law is completed.
I am not much of an environmentalist. I use plastic bags, though I try to reuse them as much as possible. I recycle, but only when it is not overly difficult,... so I don't really have much of a problem with plastic bags and the entire issue. If they ban it, fine, if not - not. What I don't get is this contradictory position - we want to get rid of them but not make it too difficult for people so we will let them continue using them. Either get rid of them or leave us alone.
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Labels:
environment,
proposed law
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Actually I think it makes sense - to ban them completely results in negative consequences, for example using pseudo-cloth bags that start to harbor bacteria and take up more space in landfills than the thin plastic ones anyway. While making people pay for bags means they will take them more sparingly - perhaps that will mean a 20% reduction in their use, and maybe that's the amount that get thrown directly in the trash anyway. (We reuse the bags as garbage pail liners for smaller bins.)
ReplyDeleteit seems banning them completely was never under consideration. Charging for them was, and the compromise was to only charge 10ag and to continue to allow smaller stores to give them for free.
ReplyDeleteso, instead of encouraging people to not use plastic bags, people will pay a couple more shekel to use them, and it will push people away from the supermarkets and into the smaller shops (even though the prices on the products are usually higher there)
let's say someone uses 8 bags (which is a lot) - 8 bags of stuff in a smaller shop will generally be a LOT more than 80 agorot over the supermarkets
DeleteTrue, but Rafi is correct that shopping psychology will probably have a bigger influence. For example in RBS the number of people who avoid the RBSA mercaz now that there's paid parking - when stopping there for 30 minutes costs say 2 shekel - and instead shopping at another supermarket or makolet where prices are 10% higher but no parking charges.
DeleteMiriam said most of what I was going to respond but in addition I would add that they spend a lot more in gas (and time) going to other areas that dont have paid parking (such as BIG mall or NEIMI mall) to benefit from the free parking, rather than spend the 2 shekel to park
DeleteAsk the merchants.. people are not shopping less in the mercaz because of paid parking. I'm personally glad to pay and now find a space when and where I need it.
DeleteDumb law. The environment loses both ways. We reuse the bags for garbage. if we will not have bags then people will be buying 'real' garbage bags, in most cases, a bag that is bigger than their garbage pail, so actually more plastic is being produced and thrown into the landfill. As mentioned, the reusable bags harbor bacteria. The reusable bags are also quite cheap and have a life of several months and then get thrown out, taking up more landfill space. Polypropylene bags decompose within several months, reusable cloth or plastic bags do not for several hundred years.
ReplyDeleteIf we are going to pay for the bags from now on, I hope they will get thicker. They are currently very borderline thin. We reuse bags for garbage
"Less plastic bags". Correct English: "Fewer plastic bags".
ReplyDelete