Plastic bags also protect the environment

A person who buys in five different stores typically receives in each one of them at least a plastic bag. This has led to consumption in Spain of plastic bags is currently one of the largest per capita in the world, being the largest producer of this product and the third European if we speak in terms of consumption.

At Spain (according to data from Anaip, Spanish Association of industrial plastics), there are 700 companies dedicated to the production and distribution of bags with a total direct employment of 11,000 workers.

Currently refers to figures of consumption in Spain of some 10,500 million bags that are equivalent to about 100,000 tons of plastic per year, even if it means a lot, reflecting the major action of the industry in weight reduction to minimize resources and wasteestablished with the fact that in recent years its weight has been reduced up to 75%.

The figures speak of only 10% of these bags are recycled, although population studies indicate that users her intended for other uses, for example according to a report prepared by the consulting firm D'Aleph for the Catalan Generalitat, based on data from 200770% of respondents said that it gives at least a second use, primarily as a garbage bag.

The Spanish situation is more or less similar to that given in other countries both in Europe and the rest of the world.

At the time, each country began to implement measures with varying degrees of success, but always based on aspects such as facilitate action by the consumer, of type education to develop a conscience more ecological or economic or legal deterrent.

Within the first aspect include concrete actions that have made some supermarket chains in USA where made available to its users a system of collection of bags that ensure a subsequent recycling. With this action encourages the recycling of bags and therefore reduces the environmental impact thereof.

An educational type is which took place in France, through awareness-raising campaigns that have achieved a reduction of 20% of single-use bags.

On a majority basis, countries have adopted dissuasive measures to deal with the large number of plastic bags that are used. These measures include:

• The collection of the plastic bag. This measure encourages users to carry a reusable shopping bag. This collection can be as tax or direct payment and it was adopted by countries as Ireland (introduced in 2002 a tax of 15 cents for plastic bag, which later rose to the 22 cents in 2007) or cities such as Hong Kong (introduced a measure in which vendors to the retail should be paid to their) (customers at $0.06, tax). Also indicate that in the rest of China (where he consumed the day 3,000 million bags) this year has banned its free distribution, what store you will need to charge for it. Some chains of supermarkets with a direct payment by the bag were in Spain, this type of action the using years ago.
• Prohibition of non-biodegradable disposable bags. This measure has been carried out in European countries such as Italy or France. With regard to the non-European area, San Francisco was the first city in USA that prohibited them, allowing only cloth, paper and biodegradable plastic bags.

Before this whole situation and the different responses of the countries, Spain was raised that it was necessary to take measures that should be assumed consumers, by both companies, as by the administration.

Thus, at the end of February 2009 and in the midst of great controversy, the integrated National Plan of waste (PNIR) was published.

This plan sets out two plastic bags-related measures:

• The use of a single use plastic bag should be reduced to 50% by the year 2010. This point goes in line with the packaging and packaging waste directive (transposed into national legislation by law 11/1997 and developed by the Royal Decree 782/1998) with regard to the principle of prevention or minimisation of packaging waste.
• The single-use non-biodegradable plastic bag should be removed from 2011, through time-bound.

In response to these two measures domestic manufacturers of plastic bags acting in parallel with that of other countries have opted for two options: reusable plastic bags and biodegradable plastic bags.

Reusable plastic bags allow the drastic reduction in the consumption of single use bags. There are different types of reusable bags, many of which are made of plastic (PP, resistant bags of PE… raffia).

The key is reused more times than the mass of the reusable shopping bag ratio / mass of a single-use bag; to this end, it was necessary to establish technical specifications to be met by the stock market. So the makers of plastic bags have developed a standard for the certification of the plastic reusable bag "UNE 53942: reusable bags of polyethylene (PE) for the transport of products distributed to the retail." "Particular requirements and test methods".

The format of this type of bags is similar to the current one, except that have a larger, better properties and they are designed to make a last use as a garbage bag, usual trend in household organic waste. In case of not being used as garbage bag will continue to be collected for subsequent recycling as is already at present, through the selective collection of packaging in the container yellow, since these bagsas well as a single-use polyethylene bag, it is 100% recyclable. In this respect it should be noted that Spain is the leader in recycling of plastic bags from all over Europe.

With appropriate consumer use, reusable bags are, at present, an optimal environmental solution. The better, as cycle studies demonstrate life made on different types of bags on the market, including paper.

In addition to reusable plastic bag is the biodegradable plastic bag. This bag would allow the implementation of the second measure of the PNIR (Elimination of non-biodegradable bags).

The management of waste from these biodegradable plastic bags will be different depending on their ability to be disposed of along with organic waste to its composting. This type of bags must end its life in a composting plant and after a maximum of 6 months, it will decompose it giving a manure or compost, which can be used for agricultural crops, gardens, etc., then in the case of a real recovery.

There are still many doubts about these bags, related primarily to the higher cost of the same (expected is declining with the increase of production), with insufficient current production (a far cry from the production of PE bags) and the behavior of this material in the lines of traditional recycling. This is a bag that has to continue working for its improvement.

All these alternatives, reusable and plastic plastic bags biodegradable, were discussed on 26 January in a seminar organized by Aimplas. They participated as speakers representatives of the Ministry of environment, Rural and Marine Affairs; European Bioplastics; Oxo-degradable Plastic Association; the National Association of plastic industries (Anaip); and Aimplas technicians.

On the day it became clear that these alternatives are environmentally correct techniques and that they comply with the requirements of use with both the aforementioned PNIR. The end of each of the tracks use will depend, therefore, of the final decisions to take the market, although it is expected that in the short term living options.