Sun, Aug 05, 2018 page5

• Chile enacts historic ban on commercial plastic bags

  • AFP, SANTIAGO
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  Chile made history on Friday, when it became the first country in South America to ban the commercial use of plastic bags.

  “I want to share with you the joy that as of today we’re enacting the law,” Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said at a public ceremony in the center of Santiago, after which he handed out cloth bags to passers-by.

  Large businesses have six months to phase out the use of plastic bags, while smaller ones are given two years to adopt the new rules.

  

  Plastic bags sit on a counter at a supermarket in Santiago on July 18.

  Photo: AFP

  It means that any form of plastic bag other than those constituting primary packaging “necessary for hygiene or to prevent food wastage” are prohibited, the government newspaper Diario Oficial said on Friday.

  Those flouting the ban would be subject to a US$370 fine, in a country where the minimum wage is US$800.

  “Without a doubt we’re taking a giant step toward a cleaner Chile,” Pinera said.

  In the meantime, companies are to be limited to handing out a maximum of two plastic bags per transaction.

  The law was passed on June 1, but appealed by the Association of Industrial Plastics, whose objections were rejected by the constitutional court.

  Chile has been one of the countries leading the way in Latin America against the use of plastic bags.

  In 2014, the government of former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet banned them in Chilean Patagonia and last year extended the ban to coastal areas.

  Chile’s problem has reached epic proportions, with 3.2 billion plastic bags used every year — about 200 per person — according to the government.

  “A plastic bag takes seconds to make, is used for less than half an hour between the supermarket and the home, and then takes 400 years to biodegrade,” Pinera said.

  About 90 percent of them end up in landfill sites or the sea, where they can be swallowed by birds or fish.

  The toxic effects of the polyethylene bags on oceans was highlighted in Thailand by the death of a whale that had swallowed more than 80 plastic bags.

  “We cannot continue like this,” Pinera said, adding that “nature is suffering the effects of plastic bags.”

  On top of that, only 4 percent of Chile’s 17.5 million people recycle.

  “What we want to do is very simple: We want to change Chileans’ way of life,” Pinera said.

  Latin America and the Caribbean are particularly vulnerable to the environmental disaster as the region has one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world.

  According to the UN, it has 16 million square kilometers of sea comprising almost one-quarter of the world’s fish population.

  The Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda was the first country in the region to ban plastic bags in 2016. Colombia the same year prohibited the use of small bags before placing a tax on the use of bigger ones a year later.

  Ecuador has moved to restrict the use of plastic bags, straws and bottles around the biosphere reserve of the Galapagos Islands, which are a World Heritage Site.

  Panama was the first country in Central America to announce a complete ban on plastic bags in January, but it has given businesses up to two years to comply with the new directives.

  The three biggest cities in Latin America have also taken action, with Mexico City banning the distribution of free bags in 2009. Sao Paulo followed suit in 2015, while Buenos Aires went a step further in January by putting a stop to supermarkets either using or selling such bags.
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