Government signals end of free plastic bags – but will move make much difference to customers?

The Czech government has just approved legislation that will make it illegal for shops to give customers free plastic bags from the year after next. Small clear bags to hold the likes of fruit or bread rolls will not be affected by the new EU-required norm. Will Czechs mind having to pay for plastic bags? And what will the benefits of the move be? I discussed those issues with environmentalist Vojtěch Kotecký.

Photo: Tomáš Adamec

“The ban will help prevent old used bags being wasted. Because when people pay for them they will tend to keep them rather than throwing them away at the first opportunity.

“The fly tipping of free plastic bags is becoming a major environmental problem in the Czech Republic and other European countries, because it contributes to our cities and communities becoming polluted with plastic waste.

“In the worst cases it ends up in our rivers or even the sea.”

Do you have a sense that people will mind having to pay for plastic bags? If I remember correctly, when I first came here 25 years ago or so no bags were free, you always had to pay, and then some of the big international chains started bringing in free bags later.

“I think that the ban will actually change almost nothing.

“Most supermarkets already do the responsible thing and require people to pay a small amount of money for plastic bags. So the change will be rather symbolic.”

But don’t small Vietnamese shops, where many people do their shopping, give out free bags still? Maybe the big chains like Billa or Albert don’t do that, but I believe these small Vietnamese shops give out free bags very often.

Vojtěch Kotecký, photo: Ondřej Vrtiška

“The majority of retail purchases in the Czech Republic are done in supermarkets, so supermarkets are the place where decisions about the amount of plastic waste will be made.

“And obviously the change has to start with supermarkets.”

Small clear bags, the kind of bags people use for buying fruit and vegetables, will remain free. I presume you would also like to see a reduction in their usage?

“You can’t reasonably ban supermarkets from giving out these small bags which you put your bread or tomatoes in. We will need to find other ways to deal with them.

“But this is not what people usually throw away, because they need to use them to bring your food home.”

Yes, but at home you throw them in the bin.

“One of the major environmental changes in the Czech Republic over the last 15 years has been a massive growth in recycling.

“So when people bring bags home, they will usually tend to separate them and recycle them, rather than throwing them away.”

Is recycling a success in the Czech Republic? I know it’s a very big question and not the main issue we’re talking about.

“We’ve made big progress in recycling. The Czech Republic used to recycle something like 7 percent of waste back in 2000 or 2001, whereas now we are somewhere over 30 percent.

Photo: Zsuzsanna Kilian / freeimages

“The growth in recycling was spectacular in the previous decade. It has slowed down since then and because of that the Czech Republic is lagging behind countries like Germany or Austria; they recycle twice as much as we do.

“That means that the government needs to bring in new laws and new programmes to increase recycling and to make recycling easier.

“It needs to introduce doorstep recycling, which is common in many West European countries, to support the recycling of kitchen and garden waste, which is a major non-recycled but recyclable waste stream, and so on.”