Starting April 1, plastic bags will become paid in most German stores
As noted in the publication "Russkaya Germaniya," today residents of Germany have gradually gotten used to returning empty bottles to machines, and businesses have been able to make up for their lost profits. The environmental situation in the country has also seemingly improved over the past years – plastic, previously discarded thoughtlessly, no longer lies on the streets.
It is not surprising, therefore, that back in 2010 voices in Germany began calling for the introduction of a "tax" on the use of plastic bags by retail outlets. The Greens even attempted to push such a bill through the Bundestag at the time, but this initiative was not supported by other parties.
The attitude toward this issue in Germany fundamentally changed at the end of 2014, when the European Parliament adopted a resolution providing for a gradual ban on free single-use bags in retail trade. In addition, MEPs spoke in favor of a significant reduction in the total amount of plastic used. Each EU member state was offered to choose its own method of reducing "plastic waste": either completely ban the use of bags by 2018, or sell them to consumers, which would also sharply reduce plastic use.
In the second case, according to MEPs, a situation would arise where a consumer would think ten times before throwing a used bag into the trash. The money obtained from selling bags could be used to fund research into the production of synthetic materials capable of rapid decomposition, similar to biomaterials.
According to German statistics, every resident of Germany uses an average of 65 plastic bags per year. The "life" of one bag is short: it is only half an hour, which is the usual time from the supermarket or discount store checkout to the consumer's home. German retail trade has also paid attention to this statistic. Although no legislative decision on plastic bags has been made in Germany yet, the country's largest retail chains have already taken voluntary commitments not to hand out plastic for free.
Thus, this week it became known that from April 1, in all branches of the C&A department store, a bag for purchased goods will cost 20 cents. The Media Markt – Saturn group is also joining this initiative, where it will no longer be possible to get free plastic packaging. The German shoe giant Deichmann is also beginning to test this innovation, though not yet in all branches.
In Karstadt stores, bags will cost from 5 to 30 cents depending on size. Some German retailers, such as Douglas, Görtz, Peek & Cloppenburg, plan to replace plastic with paper bags, which pose no threat to the environment. In any case, it seems that the era of very eco-friendly little bags is beginning its advance in Germany.