Plastic bags from grocery stores in the Baltic states are a common sight on the ground this spring as litter previously covered by snow is exposed.
TALLINN — The checkout counter at your local Maxima may never look the same.
Estonia’s parliament is proposing a new tax on plastic bags in an effort to encourage the use of more environmentally-friendly packaging.
The bill would kill two birds with one stone in the northernmost Baltic state — helping the environment and boosting the state budget. The national budget remains tight as the economic crisis decreased tax revenue and while the [private_supervisor]Maastricht criteria for eurozone entry eliminates deficit spending over 3 percent of gross domestic product.
The Greens, Reform Party and the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica submitted the plastic bag excise draft bill to the Riigikogu on Thursday. If the act is adopted, it would add three krooni (€0.19) to the current price of bags starting from Jan. 1, 2011.
The excise would be applied to all plastic bags that exceed 20×30 cm in size. The purpose of the bill is to reduce harm to the environment, but also to increase the already tight national budget by at least 30 million krooni per year (€1.9 million).
If three krooni isn’t be enough to deter people from using bags, the excise sum would be discussed again, the parliamentarians said.
According to Parliamentarian Toomas Trapido of the Estonian Greens, the idea is to increase the reuse of plastic bags and encourage shoppers to bring fabric bags from home to the checkout line.
“Above all it is a signal with a meaning that activities burdening nature are not favored even though it is permitted,” Trapido told Baltic Reports.
Trapido said that a similar system is already applied in Ireland, Denmark, France and elsewhere in the world. The best results were seen in Ireland, where the usage of plastic bags decreased by 90 percent. [/private_supervisor] [private_subscription 1 month]Maastricht criteria for eurozone entry eliminates deficit spending over 3 percent of gross domestic product.
The Greens, Reform Party and the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica submitted the plastic bag excise draft bill to the Riigikogu on Thursday. If the act is adopted, it would add three krooni (€0.19) to the current price of bags starting from Jan. 1, 2011.
The excise would be applied to all plastic bags that exceed 20×30 cm in size. The purpose of the bill is to reduce harm to the environment, but also to increase the already tight national budget by at least 30 million krooni per year (€1.9 million).
If three krooni isn’t be enough to deter people from using bags, the excise sum would be discussed again, the parliamentarians said.
According to Parliamentarian Toomas Trapido of the Estonian Greens, the idea is to increase the reuse of plastic bags and encourage shoppers to bring fabric bags from home to the checkout line.
“Above all it is a signal with a meaning that activities burdening nature are not favored even though it is permitted,” Trapido told Baltic Reports.
Trapido said that a similar system is already applied in Ireland, Denmark, France and elsewhere in the world. The best results were seen in Ireland, where the usage of plastic bags decreased by 90 percent. [/private_subscription 1 month] [private_subscription 4 months]Maastricht criteria for eurozone entry eliminates deficit spending over 3 percent of gross domestic product.
The Greens, Reform Party and the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica submitted the plastic bag excise draft bill to the Riigikogu on Thursday. If the act is adopted, it would add three krooni (€0.19) to the current price of bags starting from Jan. 1, 2011.
The excise would be applied to all plastic bags that exceed 20×30 cm in size. The purpose of the bill is to reduce harm to the environment, but also to increase the already tight national budget by at least 30 million krooni per year (€1.9 million).
If three krooni isn’t be enough to deter people from using bags, the excise sum would be discussed again, the parliamentarians said.
According to Parliamentarian Toomas Trapido of the Estonian Greens, the idea is to increase the reuse of plastic bags and encourage shoppers to bring fabric bags from home to the checkout line.
“Above all it is a signal with a meaning that activities burdening nature are not favored even though it is permitted,” Trapido told Baltic Reports.
Trapido said that a similar system is already applied in Ireland, Denmark, France and elsewhere in the world. The best results were seen in Ireland, where the usage of plastic bags decreased by 90 percent. [/private_subscription 4 months] [private_subscription 1 year]Maastricht criteria for eurozone entry eliminates deficit spending over 3 percent of gross domestic product.
The Greens, Reform Party and the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica submitted the plastic bag excise draft bill to the Riigikogu on Thursday. If the act is adopted, it would add three krooni (€0.19) to the current price of bags starting from Jan. 1, 2011.
The excise would be applied to all plastic bags that exceed 20×30 cm in size. The purpose of the bill is to reduce harm to the environment, but also to increase the already tight national budget by at least 30 million krooni per year (€1.9 million).
If three krooni isn’t be enough to deter people from using bags, the excise sum would be discussed again, the parliamentarians said.
According to Parliamentarian Toomas Trapido of the Estonian Greens, the idea is to increase the reuse of plastic bags and encourage shoppers to bring fabric bags from home to the checkout line.
“Above all it is a signal with a meaning that activities burdening nature are not favored even though it is permitted,” Trapido told Baltic Reports.
Trapido said that a similar system is already applied in Ireland, Denmark, France and elsewhere in the world. The best results were seen in Ireland, where the usage of plastic bags decreased by 90 percent. [/private_subscription 1 year]
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