Parliament has decided to ban certain plastic products. The biggest response in the media was caused by banning plastic bags or allowing further distribution. In many cases, this generated non-professional debates, but rather political and emotional effects. Our present professional article seeks to present the already adopted legal background, as well as the “cold” emotion-free presentation of professional arguments.
Importantly, the bill was passed by Parliament with 195 votes in favor, no abstentions and no votes. (The Act was adopted by the National Assembly on the day of its sitting on 3 July 2020, which was published in the 170th issue of the Hungarian Gazette) which shows a unanimous consensus. The previous draft would have banned single-use plastic beverage cups as well as light and very light carrying bags made of biodegradable plastic from 1st of January. Fortunately, the adopted law is less prohibitive.
Of course, it is not our intention to be a judge deciding on disputes, but in our view, the truth on this issue is also halfway there. With a total ban, hundreds, possibly thousands, of jobs would have been lost and prosperous businesses would have been close to bankruptcy. Moreover, a total ban is not professionally justified, as not all plastic products have a real and cost-effective alternative. In many cases, paper lobbyists did not take into account the fact that
Hungary is not a forest power. In addition, we do not have plenty of paper mills either, so there is nothing left but the finished paper bags or the foreign import of paper raw material. Which would be detrimental to consumers due to its own HUF 353 euro middle exchange rate as a cost increase. Moreover, not to mention the ecological footprint of rumbling trucks and the one-third ratio of the tensile strength of paper to plastic (three times as much paper stock is needed to make a bag as plastic). It is also an indisputable fact that the use of plastic carrier bags with a wall thickness of less than 15 microns is necessary for hygiene purposes or helps to prevent food wastage (cod meat, wet goods, offals).
We need to be aware that the plastic bag does not voluntarily end up in the woods, on the side of the road and does not jump into the rivers and seas with joy, but is certainly put there by a “human hand”. The most important thing is to put things right in the minds of people, because only one-tenth of the plastics emitted are recycled, which can be changed primarily through awareness-raising, as a result of each person changing their own habits.
The purpose of this article is not to present the domestic implementation of the SUP Directive as planned, but focuses exclusively on the changes in the Product Charges Act for plastic bags.
The most important change is that the concept of plastic shopping bags is repealed by the legislator.
Instead, we need to learn new definitions: Plastics: Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), establishing a European Chemicals Agency, amending Directive 1999/45 / EC and amendin
fg Council Regulation (EEC) No 793/93, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/94 of 18 December 2006 repealing Council Directives 76/769 / EEC, 91/155 / EEC, 93/67 / EEC, 93/105 / EC and 2000/21 / EC A polymer within the meaning of Article 3 (5) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, to which additives or other substances may have been added and which is suitable for use as a major structural component of plastic carrier bags, including biodegradable plastics; "
Biodegradable plastic: plastic that is physically and biodegradable to ultimately decompose to carbon dioxide (CO2), biomass and water and that can be recovered by composting and anaerobic digestion in accordance with European packaging standards; "
Plastic carrier bag: a carrier bag made of plastic, with or without a handle, which is provided to consumers at the point of sale of the goods or products, with the exception of a flexible plastic cooler wallet or cooler bag; '
Very light plastic carrier bag: a plastic carrier bag with a wall thickness of less than 15 microns, the use of which is for hygienic purposes or which is used for the primary packaging of bulk foodstuffs in cases where it helps to prevent waste of food; " Lightweight plastic carrier bag: a plastic carrier bag with a wall thickness of less than 50 microns; "
The amendment to the law introduced prohibitive measures to reduce the use of lightweight plastic carrier bags. The plastic carrier bag will be charged a uniform product fee of HUF 1,900 / kg, with the exception of the plastic carrier bag made of biodegradable plastic, it will be charged a fee of HUF 500 / kg. The essence of the change is that the plastic bag and bag (croissant, baker's cookie, bag of vegetables) previously sold with a product fee of HUF 57 / kg received a higher product fee charge.
Thus, overall, the restriction applies to lightweight plastic carrier bags having a wall thickness of 15 microns and above but less than 50 microns, with the exception of biodegradable plastic carrier bags. This law will enter into force on 1st of July 2021, leaving time for market participants to prepare.
In addition to the preparation period, the Government intends to support the promotion of technology change in companies manufacturing products affected by the ban by providing HUF 10,000,000,000 a year in 2021-2025.
Another important challenge is to develop the possibilities of integrating biodegradable plastic carrier bag waste into the waste management system. Of course, in the knowledge of the implementing regulations to be adopted by the Government, we will see the complete legislative change and on the basis of it we will be able to present it fully and without any doubt. On the other hand, it is safe to say that conscious consumption would be the goal of the change in legislation in order to prevent the generation of waste as much as possible, even by going shopping with our own reusable bags, sachets and bags. If this can no longer be achieved for some reason, we ensure that the plastic products, bags and sacks that have become waste are returned to the secondary raw material flow by the circular economic approach.
Declaration
The Green Tax Service Ltd. hereby declares that the person compiling this professional information material performed the task to the best of his knowledge, trying to compile the deepest analysis based on the information, and acted with the expected care and caution.
This summary does not contain the regulations provided for in the Complete Product Fees Act and its implementing decree, only its most significant points. Its purpose is not to cite the references to completeness and legal norm in detail, but to provide practical guidance, the primary purpose of which is clarity.
The findings, opinions and suggestions described in the professional material reflect the legal interpretation and professional opinion of the author and qualify as a recommendation and not an exclusive method. The statement of Green Tax Service Ltd. contains the professional opinions, suggestions and methods provided by the provisions of the Product Fees Act and the applied market practice to the maximum.
Green Tax Service Ltd. excludes its liability for possible errors and omissions. GREEN TAX SERVICE Kft. has no competence to interpret the legislation, it does not bind the courts or authorities in a possible legal dispute.
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