News | Sunday, 21 December 2008

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

Tax on plastic bags a ‘wrong step’ – former British MP

James Debono
Former British MP Michael Stephen has questioned the wisdom of imposing a tax on plastic bags, if it makes no distinction between degradable and non-degradable bags, as proposed in Malta’s last Budget.
Stephen, a former member of the Commons’ environment committee, is today a member of the British Standards Institute panel and also chairs the worldwide Oxy-biodegradable Plastics Association (OPA), which lobbies for the use of degradable bags derived from oil derivatives.
He was speaking at the Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, invited by bio-degradable plastic importer Longbow.
Stephen said the recent tax on plastic bags was a step in the wrong direction because it imposes the same tax on ordinary plastic bags and degradable plastic bags. “It removes the incentive to use degradable plastic,” he said.
Praising Malta for being one of the first countries in the world for having made that distinction back in 2004, Stephen says conventional plastic bags must be taxed higher than degradable ones.
“You were leading the world as you had an eco-tax recognising the difference between ordinary and degradable plastic, as you imposed a lower tax on degradable plastic,” Stephen said.
But the measure was ineffective because supermarkets started giving out non-degradable plastic bags to clients for free.
Now the government expects retail outlets to issue a receipt for the 15c charge levied on any plastic bag given to clients.
“I am not suggesting there should be no tax on plastic bags,” Stephen says. “What I am suggesting is that there should be a higher tax on conventional plastic bags. So the plastic bags used in the future are the degradable ones.”
So why not ban non-degradable plastic bags altogether? Stephen believes this would be probably illegal under EU law, and instead proposed the Slovenian model. “They introduced a higher tax on conventional plastic bags but the tax exists on both kinds of plastic bags, so people are being encouraged not to use plastic bags.”
Malta is emulating the Irish example, which imposed the same tax on plastic bags given by retail outlets, which led to a drastic decrease in the amount of plastic bags in Ireland.
Stephen acknowledges the measure’s success, but adds that it only benefited supermarket owners who started charging for plastic bags instead of giving them out for free. “If people are not getting a free carrier bag they are buying something else like a bin liner or garbage. They have not reduced the amount of plastic going in to the environment and they missed the opportunity to encourage people to use degradable bags.”
He also questions whether there is actually a need of a war on plastic bags. “Most people tend to re-use shopping bags as bin liners for which a paper bag is useless. People want plastic bags. They are convenient and strong. There is no need for a war on plastic bags. What you need is to ensure that they are all degradable. So if they end up into the sea or the countryside they self-destruct.”

Corn or oil?
Stephen adds that discriminating between hydro-biodegradable bags, produced from corn biofuel and which are dissoluble in water; and oxy-biodegradable bags, produced from oil derivatives, is counter-productive.
“One problem in Malta’s legislation was the bad distinction between oxy-biodegradable and hydro-biodegradable, because you encourage the use of land and water resources to manufacture plastic bags. You should not encourage the use of plastic bags made from corn. Can you imagine the amount of petrol or diesel needed to cultivate the land, and the amount of fertilizers used to produce them?”
Oxy-biodegradable plastic bags are designed to self-destruct within six months under exposure to sunlight, without containing heavy metals that can contaminate the environment.
But the advantage of corn-derived plastic bags is that they can be turned into compost.
Stephen doubts whether Malta has the facility to do this on an industrial scale. On the other hand, he says oxy-biodegradable bags don’t release methane into the air.
He also disputes that bags made from oil can only increase our dependence on oil. “Plastic bags are made from a bye-product of oil that would otherwise be wasted. It’s better to use that waste product for plastic bags, than grow corn to make them.

Canvas bags are the best
Green NGO Friends of the Earth-Malta agrees that degredable bags should be taxed less than ordinary plastic bags even if it preders the use of re-usable bags to degredable plastic bags.
“Different countries have had different approaches to degradable bags. However we think the distinction between ordinary plastic bags and degredable plastics should have been continued even to avoid confusion into people’s minds,” FOE spokesperson Martin Galea De Giovanni told MaltaToday.
But for FOE degredable plastics are only a lesser evil and not the solution.
“One of the problems with degradable plastics is when they are thrown into a hole in the ground and break down, as there is no oxygen, the carbon turns into methane which is a greenhouse gas,” said De Giovanni.
De Giovanni has a more favourable opinion of bags made from corn than Stephen but he admits that these are weaker and far more expensive.
“But we agree that they should be given preference to normal plastic bags.”
As regards biodegradable bags are made from polythene and starch he pointed out that when the bag is buried after being thrown away, the starch molecules are broken down by bacteria. But the polythene does not decompose.
Ultimately according to FOE the way forward should be that of promoting the use of canvas bags.
“The tax on plastic bags has existed for a long time - what was needed was more enforcement not an increase in taxation. An educational campaign, together with some enforcement would have worked wonders.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance justified the lack of any incentives for degredable plastic bags because the government’s intention is that of reducing the amount of plastic bags consumed annually.
“The use of reusable bags (such as cloth bags) is preferred over the use of plastic bags,” the government spokesperson said.

jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt

Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below.
Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.