Film producers question biodegradable bag plans

Plastic film producers have added their weight to calls for the government to ditch its proposed biodegradable bag exemption from the 5p carrier bag levy.

The UK Packaging and Films Association (PAFA) has claimed that the governments proposal to allow biodegradable bags to continue to be distributed free of charge, after the levy comes into effect in 2015, will create confusion and uncertainty among consumers over recycling.

This echoes calls from the recycling sector who claim that the measure would have catastrophic consequences for film recyclers, and claim that promoting the use of degradable bags could undermine the recycling of plastic films.

Plans to introduce a 5p levy on single-use plastic bags were announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in September (see letsrecycle.com story). Meanwhile, a consultation into the proposals, including a planned exemption for degradable carriers, was launched by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) this month (see letsrecycle.com story).

PAFA chief executive Barry Turner has questioned the logic for implementing the carrier bag charge overall, arguing that plastic bags make up only a small percentage of the waste stream, and said that the proposed exemptions conflicted with the governments waste reduction message.

‘At this time the criteria that biodegradable plastic carriers are required to meet have not been made clear. This creates confusion and uncertainty whilst encouraging the use of materials which are made to deliberately go to waste.’

Barry Turner, PAFA

He said: The two major exemptions being proposed which favour degradable and paper bags seem wholly inconsistent with the stated aim to cut litter itself has been overstated by government.

According to recent surveys by Keep Britain Tidy the incidence of littering of grocery shopping bags has been falling year-on-year for the last four years and carrier bags fall towards the bottom of their list of most often littered items.

Exemption

Meanwhile, Mr Turner also cast doubts over how the exemption will work in practice, adding: At this time the criteria that biodegradable plastic carriers are required to meet have not been made clear. This creates confusion and uncertainty whilst encouraging the use of materials which are made to deliberately go to waste.

Surely if there is to be yet another charge on our hard-pressed householders any exemptions should be those that reinforce reuse, allow recycling, already use recycled materials and effectively minimise and conserve resources. The much maligned plastic supermarket bag already ticks all these boxes. Its time we binned the myths behind plastic carrier bags.

Opponents of the exemption for biodegradable bags say that it is not possible to recycle degradable bags alongside standard plastic carriers due to the difference in the structure of the material and promoting their use could undermine the recycling of plastic films.

This appears to be supported by the findings of a report commissioned by the continental plastics reprocessing body European Plastics Converters (EuPC) published this month. The report claims that as little as 2% of degradable plastic film mixed in with plastic recyclates can cause significant detrimental impacts to the quality of plastic recyclates.