It’s a wrap for plastic bags

With new legislation, Israel’s ‘nylon’ carrier bags will become scarcer and, ultimately, obsolete.

By MIRIAM KRESH
'Shufersal' supermarket (photo credit: REUTERS)
'Shufersal' supermarket
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Perhaps you remember your neighborhood supermarket going through an eco-bag phase at the check-out. For a while, you could buy green reusable tote bags cheaply to replace the ever-present nylonim, or common plastic bags. Then they disappeared, probably following the ups and downs of a proposed bill that hasn’t taken effect yet. The eco-bags have come and gone, but the nylonim are still with us.
The harm that plastic bags cause to the environment is well known: animals such as our native ibex choke on them; fish and turtles mistake them for food and likewise choke; bags flying in the breeze bump up against natural barriers such as rocks and accumulate into huge piles, even drifting into caves.
The raw material used for making plastic bags is petroleum, the entire manufacture of which eats up energy and water resources and pollutes the environment.
And plastic bags don’t decompose. Even if thin sheets of plastic break down into crumbs over time, those plastic crumbs will stick around for a century, maybe longer.
According to the Environment Protection Ministry, about 2.6 billion carrier bags are used every year in Israel, supermarket bags comprising 1.6 billion of them.
This breaks down to 1,050 of these bags per household every year. One-quarter of those bags go into the garbage within minutes of arrival at the consumer’s home. Some are reused once but seldom twice, and in the end most are dumped into landfills. Over the decades, toxins from the bags slowly leak into the landfills, eventually polluting land and water.
Retailers purchase about NIS 80 million worth of plastic bags a year for distribution to customers. If nothing changes to modify shoppers’ behavior, customers will use 1.39 billion plastic bags in 2017. That means 7,600 tons of bags taking up landfill space, costing us NIS 716 million yearly.
The good news is that Israel is anxious to step into line with European countries which have already implemented bag reduction methods. According to a 2014 survey by the Environment Protection Ministry, 70 percent of Israelis agree to the banning of plastic bags for the sake of the environment. The European and Council Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste, which was published in 2013, suggests taxing disposable bags, moving on to forbidding retailers to give them out. It is likely that Israel will use those methods, along with an awareness campaign supported by supermarkets and free distribution of biodegradable, reusable totes.
The Environment Ministry is minister-less at the moment. Former environment minister Amir Peretz introduced a bill in 2014 that would have stopped distribution of plastic bags at supermarkets. The bill was put aside after his resignation and will only be taken up again when a new minister has been appointed after the upcoming Knesset elections. (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially took over the ministry, but his tenure and that of his deputy lapsed after three months). The ministry has issued a statement assuring the public that all delegated tasks are continuing to be routinely performed as if in the presence of a minister.
Once an environment minister is in place, we can expect the following changes: Customers will be obliged to pay a tax on each plastic bag they take home. The price of the bags will appear on receipts just like any other purchase. However, bags needed to carry fresh produce will not be taxed, so we won’t have to pay to avoid cramming unwrapped chickens and strawberries into the same space.
But how will we schlep the rest of our groceries home? We’ll get used to using eco-bags. Major supermarket chains will buy and distribute two kinds of reusable tote bags, gratis, for one year. One kind of eco-bag will hold up to 25 kg., and a smaller, foldable one will hold up to 13 kg. Every household will receive seven coupons for the bags. After the initial year, new eco-bags will be available for purchase in supermarkets at a minimal price of NIS 1 to NIS 3. Some of the chains committed to the no-plastic-bag campaign are Shufersal, Mega, Rami Levy, Hatzi Hinam and Osher Ad.
Until the time that plastic bags are totally banned, no bag thinner than 20 microns may given out by markets or retailers. The reason is that the thinner and flimsier the bag, the harder it is to recycle. In addition, lightweight bags are more likely to drift into nature and cause damage. There is a theory that heavier bags aren’t mistaken for food by land and marine species that swallow light ones.
Microns are a measurement gauge. For comparison, the US industry standard for Ziplock bags is 50.8 microns. Twenty microns is not considered a drastic change in international terms. South Africa, for example, bans bags under 30 microns thick. India requires bags to be 50 microns thick.
Supermarkets that evade the law will be heavily fined. Money from fines and the new tax will be applied to the Maintenance of Cleanliness Fund, which supports the Maintenance of Cleanliness Law (1984), or will go into the national treasury.
You don’t have to wait for the new law to take effect to help reduce plastic bag use. Take your used, crumpled grocery bags to the market. As long as they’re clean, you can reuse them several times. Keep your eyes open for stores that already offer sturdy bags for shopping and invest in a few. Health food stores, shops that outfit travelers, and farmer’s markets that offer organic produce are likely sources of eco-bags.
Above all, when out in nature or taking a trip, don’t dump the plastic bags that held your sandwiches or change of shoes out in the wild. Fold them up and take the trouble to carry them to a garbage disposal unit. Although they’ll go to a landfill, at least they won’t be carried off by the wind to festoon and choke trees or collect in our already polluted waters.