"The decision will certainly lead to a reduction in the production of plastic bags, which is considerable in Croatia and as much as 60 per cent of it is exported," HGK official Gordana Pehnec Pavlovic said.
She recalled that throughout 2014 the HGK had worked intensively with bag producers, the Environment Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and Croatian representatives in Brussels to change the relevant rules.
"We are pleased that we have managed to ensure that production is not banned, which we would consider unfounded because plastic bags can be recycled. Our view is that the problem of waste should be dealt with by a system of separate collection and not by banning production because such a system does not exist. Croatia has a good system of disposal of plastic bottles, which are no longer an environmental problem because they are disposed of through a system," Pehnec Pavlovic said.
The European Parliament passed a law on Tuesday requiring the EU member states to drastically reduce the use of plastic carrier bags, which are a big problem for the environment. Under the new directive, the member states will be able to choose between two options: either to reduce the use of plastic carrier bags thinner than 50 microns to 90 bags per person by 31 December 2019 and to 40 bags per person by 2025, or to introduce charges on plastic bags by 31 December 2018 and ban them being handed out in shops for free.
Croatia is pleased with this compromise solution because the definition of a very thin bag was changed from 10 to 15 microns. Such a definition will enable the survival of domestic producers of thin plastic bags which, according to the HGK, employ about 1,500 people.