The government wants to tighten tax on plastic bags. The new idea will hit Biedronka

It was to answer the flood of plastic flooding us and additionally enrich the state budget by more than a billion zlotys (or in reverse order). The tax on plastic bags, however, turned out to be a giant dud. The government is just starting to seal it.

A good idea, a worse performance - this sentence well-known to all football fans of the premier league can be easily attributed to the recycling fee. We will all agree that there is far too much plastic in our environment, and reducing the consumption of plastic bags is a simple, quick and effective way to reduce this phenomenon a bit.

As usual, however, the devil is in the details.

The government decided to put on a one-off tax grid of 20 gr plus VAT. As if not much, but when we see how our compatriots are crowding up shopping in the so-called skidding (these nets used to pack fruit and vegetables), we do not have any doubts that even a few dozen cents deter some customers.

Not to mention more informed consumers. Since the introduction of the tax on foil, I see more and more people in stores with their own canvas bags. The new tax not only introduced symbolic fees, but also (and perhaps more importantly) drew our attention to the number of plastic bags we use. And you can easily avoid it.

However, the fee did not manage to enter into force and the combinations started. And not on the part of Mr. Mirków with shops in the suburbs, and the main player on the market - Biedronka . While all discount stores penally raised the prices of plastic sheets by 20-cents per item, the Portuguese decided that it could be done better.

So they increased the thickness of the grids, so that they exceed 50 micrometers (then they are already considered to be reusable) and began to persuade customers to come back with them for further purchases. At the same time, Biedronka raised the price of the foil anyway, but unlike the competition, she did not pay a penny to the budget. So the story from the cycle: "how not to lose virtue and earn rubelka".

Government politicians have decided that it is time to end this game in a playroom.

The latest data on the effectiveness of the recycling fee ridicules the whole idea. The original plans referred to the descent from the level of 300 grids per year to 150. Preliminary data show meanwhile that the average Pole bought about 8 foils in 2018. Will you give me faith? Me neither. Minister of the Environment Henryk Kowalczyk also remained skeptical and admitted in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza that the system is leaky.

Oh, that's not enough. He does not trust the WWF too much, estimating that in 2018 a statistical Pole used 490 foil bags and generated about 100 kg of plastic waste.

It also failed to earn. Instead of the planned PLN 1.15 billion, it is likely that the tax will be reduced by PLN 70 million.

The Minister of Entrepreneurship, Jadwiga Emilewicz, announced that the draft law would be on the table during the next Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers. What is waiting for us? According to Emilewicz's announcements, fees for plastic bags over 50 micrometers will be set at 40 grams per piece. The tax is also to be discharged monthly, and not as usual - every year.

It seems only us to cheer on us, so that the proceeds from the tax on foil would be as small as possible. And this is not because entrepreneurs will find another clever way to circumvent the law, and because the Poles will simply come to the conclusion that using foils is pure evil . Difficult to justify and explain when shopping can be done with your own non-plastic bag.

The government wants to tighten tax on plastic bags. The new idea will hit Biedronka