Labour spokesman raps 'indiscriminate' plastic bag tax
Taxes should differentiate between different types of plastic bags, the Labour Party's spokesman on the environment, Leo Brincat insisted, criticising what he termed as the indiscriminate tax introduced in the budget on both conventional and biodegradable bags.
He said the government should clearly explain the direction it wanted to take. He said the Resources Ministry confirmed it did not know the precise volume of waste derived from plastic bags.
The Labour Party, Mr Brincat continued, was therefore questioning the credibility of such incentives as the eco tax on plastic bags when the government had not even compiled the necessary information to determine whether their use was declining.
He said the first eco contribution scheme, introduced with the aim of substantially reducing the use of plastic bags, had failed miserably. To add insult to injury, the government had now considerably raised the tax in its last budget.
Mr Brincat said it seemed like the government had done this without considering ways of making biodegradable bags more profitable.
"A tax system should, for example, have been introduced that distinguishes between different types of bags and that promotes a gradual phasing out of conventional plastic bags," Mr Brincat said.
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lgalea
Dec 19th 2008, 18:13
D Vella
Why don't you comment on the eu dictatorial decision that we had to scrap our law that provided for using only glass bottles because otherwise other bottlers in other countries could not export their products bottled in plastic bottles to Malta which resulted in millions upon millions of plastic bottles being dumped in our environment?
That is what your EFApn government had accepted.
D Vella
Dec 19th 2008, 10:05
Hmm . . . so much for Labour's self-professed 'green' credentials . . . they really should read up a bit about the subject !! It may come as a surprise but bio-degradable plastic bags consume energy in their production and what's more, they also end up in the waste stream, contributing to Malta's volume of generated waste, even if they eventually degrade. Oh and has anyone bothered to check whether the constituents into which they degrade are really harmless?? What were the figures again?? Two hundred million plastic bags a year?? That's a lot of energy and a large volume of waste! Doesn't labour's little 'green' book say anything about that?? And all because most people are too lazy to use a fabric bag (or similar) which can be re-used countless times and reduce that energy consumed in production and the volume of that waste pile . . . . You've REALLY missed the whole point here!!! It is clear that the original eco-contribution scheme was not sufficient as a disincentive and people were perfectly happy to pay a few cents to accommodate their laziness, now perhaps they will think again!