Starting from today's shopping bag charge Will it lead to plastic waste reduction 5:14 on July 1st
Starting July 1, retail stores nationwide are obliged to pay for plastic shopping bags. The Ministry of the Environment and other organizations want to use plastic bags that are familiar to them as a catalyst to reduce plastic waste.
Starting July 1, all retailers nationwide are obliged to pay for shopping bags, regardless of industry or size.
The target is a plastic shopping bag with handles that you can use to carry your purchased items.
However, there are some items that are not covered by the fee, such as those that contain 25% or more of plant-derived biomass material, so some stores switch to such bags and continue free distribution, so the response is divided.
At the press conference on June 30, Koizumi said that there are cases where switching to bags containing biomass materials and making it a fee, cases where plastic bags are abolished or paper bags are also charged "There is no doubt that it gave me the opportunity to think about it. I am hoping that a uniform charge for the whole country will greatly advance the reduction of shopping bags in Japan as a whole."
According to a calculation by the Ministry of the Environment, plastic bags are estimated to account for 2% to 3% of plastic waste produced in a year in Japan.
Although plastic bags do not occupy a large amount of garbage, the Ministry of the Environment and others want to raise awareness of disposable plastics and reduce the amount of garbage as a result of the charges for plastic shopping bags that are familiar to people in daily life.