GEJI reporter on exchange from Denmark in Australia Jeppe Funder reports:
Levies on plastic bags lower usage dramatically. Need proof? Look no further than the Danish experience. A levy was introduced in 1993, when Danish consumers went through about 750 million bags per year. In 1995 the number was below 300 million, clearly showing the effect of the $5.80-per-kilogram levy introduced by the government.
The director of environment at the Danish Plastics Federation, Lars Blom, believes the shift away from plastic bags was mainly an economical choice: “When a plastic bag costs you 3 kroner and you have to get maybe two or three every time you go grocery shopping, it does add up, so I think that people mostly reuse bags for economic reasons,” he told the Danish newspaper Politiken.
The levy applied only to plastic bags capable of carrying more than five litres. The idea behind the proposal was “to put a levy on all plastic bags that can easily be replaced by green bags, backpacks etc” , as stated in legal documents from 1993. The levy, part of a reform of the taxation system, was passed 75-54 in the Danish parliament.
Getting consumers to bring bags when grocery shopping has been successful, according to a recent poll by the Danish researcher Capacent Epinion. In its survey of 1000 Danes, it found almost six out of 10 shoppers bring either plastic bags, green bags or backpacks when visiting malls.
Ireland has been another prime example of a successful levy, cutting its plastic bag usage by 90% after the Dail imposed a 5c levy on plastic bags in supermarkets. All revenue from the tolls is spent on environmental schemes.
With the introduction of a levy in Denmark the numbers of plastic bags provided took a nosedive. But in both Denmark and Ireland they have been increasing ever since. The probable cause is more money in the hands of grocery shoppers, suggests the Danish Environmental Protection Agency: ”We believe that the economic growth in general has helped raise consumption,” says Anne-Mette Lysemose Bendse, a civil engineer with the agency.
The rise prompted a response within the Danish and Irish media. Ireland raised the bag tax to ensure consumption does not reach the previous level. In Denmark, the Socialistisk Folkeparti has suggested higher levies should be introduced. “We need to raise both general awareness, and the levy, to make sure people reuse the bags,” SF’s environmental spokesperson, Ida Auken, told Politiken.
On average, a plastic bag sold in a Danish supermarket can carry up to 15kg of groceries. Such bags can be used repeatedly, provided they do not rip. After being thrown down the garbage chute, they end up at an incineration plant and used for district heating or electricity production. According to Plastics Europe – an umbrella organisation of European plastics manufacturers – 96% of the energy used to produce plastic in Denmark is thereby recovered. This puts the country in second place within the European Union, bettered only by Switzerland but light years ahead of countries such as France and England, which sit at 54% and 23%, respectively.
The use or lack of inceneration plants make the plastic bag issue more relevant to certain countries. Denmark’s EPA agrees. Lysemose Bendsen says: “During recent years, we have noticed that the use of plastic bags has been discussed in countries both in and outside the EU. These countries generally have another way of using plastic bags, as is it normal to hand out plastic bags to customers for free when grocery shopping. A number of these countries deposit waste in landfills instead of using incineration plants. This allows the bags to pile up and create problems.”
Even as levies and bans are rolled out, the hunt for alternatives is on. The most common suggestion is paper bags, but these break easily and require more energy to produce than the plastic variety. “More energy is consumed producing a paper bag than a plastic bag, and the production of plastic bags is limiting the access to wood as a general resource,” Professor Henrik Wenzel, of the environmental calculations department at South Denmark University, told Politiken recently.
A better approach would appear to be the use of either reusable plastic bags, biodegradable plastic bags, green bags or backpacks. The crucial factor is to ensure consumers bring something to carry their goods each time they go shopping.
And while no one has an exact recipe when it comes to shifting consumer behaviour, the impressive results from Denmark and Ireland show a levy could be a viable way to go.
Postscript: To test the situation in Denmark, Australian exchange student GEJI reporter, Gemma Black did her own survey outside the Netto supermarket in Denmark’s second biggest city, Aarhus