Tomorrow's plastic shopping bag charge Environment Minister Koizumi "Decline becomes a common society" June 30, 16:04

From July 1, retail stores nationwide are obliged to pay for plastic shopping bags.
Environment Minister Koizumi said, "We would like you to think about the problem of plastic waste as a result of paying for it and change into a society where it is common to decline plastic bags."

Starting from the 1st day, all retailers nationwide are obliged to pay for plastic shopping bags to reduce plastic waste.

At a press conference after the Cabinet meeting on March 30, Minister Koizumi said, “It is important to review the lifestyle of mass production and mass consumption in the new lifestyle of the new coronavirus. I would like you to think about the problem and transform into a society in which it is common to bring your own bag and decline the shopping bag for everyday shopping."

According to a questionnaire conducted by the Ministry of the Environment in March, 30% of the 2,000 respondents answered that they didn't receive a shopping bag in the last week.

The Ministry of the Environment aims to reduce the percentage of people who do not receive shopping bags to 60% as of December, and introduces the efforts of businesses and consumers on a special website, and understands and understands the charge I will proceed.

Shopping bag charge details

The Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have summarized the detailed contents such as the objects for which payment is obligatory as follows.

▽
Purchasable items It is mandatory to pay for plastic shopping bags made of fossil resources such as oil.
It is said to have a handle used to carry the purchased product, so that it does not get dirty when selling clothes, such as a thin bag called a "roll bag" that holds fish and meat, etc. Bags to be wrapped are not included.

▽Except for bags
, even if they are made of plastic and have handles, the following 3 types are not obliged to be charged.
One is a bag with a thickness of 0.05 mm or more. It was thicker than a standard shopping bag and was excluded from the list because it could be used repeatedly.
Also, a bag containing 100% of a special plastic that is biodegradable in the sea, which is decomposed in the sea, is excluded as it is less likely to cause problems with sea debris.
Bags containing 25% or more of plant-derived biomass materials such as sugar cane are not subject to the mandatory charge because they have little impact on global warming.

▽ The target industry is
obligatory to all retailers regardless of the type and size of the business, but if you are not doing retail business as a business such as sporadic flea market listings and school festival mock stores It will be outside. In addition, if the consumer cannot refuse to receive the shopping bag, such as when the product purchased by mail order is in the bag, it is not subject to the charge.

▽ The price
is set by each business operator, and the business operator also decides how to use the sales.
However, if you do not show the consumer how much the bag is, including the shopping bag price in the price of the product, or if you do not deduct that amount even if you decline the bag, 1 yen per piece It is said that making it less than does not correspond to the charge.

The Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have published such content in guidelines.