Two sides to every story
As with any environment regulation that affects business, not everyone is happy with the campaign's efforts to limit the free distribution of plastic bags, and some of the most vocal opposition is coming from bag producers. These producers have even set up their own lobbying body called the Coalition for the Ecological Packaging. The coalition claims that efforts to ban plastic bags are actually more harmful than beneficial, both in terms of customer interest and the environment.
The Lodz initiative, which has now gone nationwide, has even provoked the European Plastics Converters (EuPC) into speaking up on the issue. After conducting its own legal analysis of Piatkowski's efforts in Lodz, EuPC concluded that "reasons behind the [Lodz] resolution are mainly visual, and are not based on scientific facts but on public perception ... The polluters are not the products per se, but the consumers who leave the plastic bags on the streets, in parks, et cetera."
Moreover, EuPC said that "[European Union] member states and local authorities cannot prohibit the placing on the market of a product produced in the EU, respecting the only valid legislation, namely the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive; which is, from a legal perspective, hierarchically higher than any local or national legislation."
The latter argument is certainly what Poland's Environment Ministry must bear in mind when proceedings on the draft being in the Sejm. So far, the ministry has not spoken on the issue in any decisive way, but from various statements of Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki, as well as his aides, one could infer that an outright ban on the free handing out of plastic bags might not be the way to go.
The ministry seems to be referring mainly to the point raised by the EuPC that it is customer behaviour that is primarily responsible for littering Poland's cities and countryside with plastic bags, not the manufacture and free distribution of plastic bags as such. Therefore, a new media campaign got underway in January to adjust to this perception. "We'd like to promote reusable bags as something that's fashionable," says ministry spokesman Michal Milewski.
What Poland's Environment Ministry appears to be suggesting in rather diplomatic terms is that imposing a ban on plastic bags is to exaggerate the contribution of one component to what is a highly complex problem. Based on data from two UK-based organisations, Carrier Bag Consortium and the Packaging and Films Association, the ministry might actually have a point. These groups calculated that plastic bags account for just 1 percent of total waste output in Britain, and that 80 percent of consumers reuse those bags after bringing them home from a shop or supermarket.
According to Polish environmental NGO Nasza Ziemia (Our Earth), one solution to the problem that might be more effective than introducing a controversial regulations or costly media campaign would be to for big retail chains to simply assess the raw numbers — that is, to carry out a detailed cost-benefit analysis. The NGO argues that, instead of buying millions of plastic bags that are then handed to customers for free, retailers could nearly completely eliminate these costs by presenting customers with a clear choice: "Either you buy a reusable bag from us, or you provide your own bag."
Then again, maybe customer perception would change over time if retailers asked: "Would you like some free garbage?"
