Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I thank the Senator for raising this issue, to which I am responding on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan.

Since its introduction on 4 March 2002 the plastic bag levy has been an outstanding success and instrumental in changing consumer behaviour in discouraging the use of plastic bags. The levy applies to all bags made wholly or partly of plastic, subject to specific exemptions set out in the legislation, of which the most important is that plastic bags designed for reuse are exempt from the levy, provided the retailer charges at least 70 cent for the bag.

The legislation does not distinguish between biodegradable plastic bags and other plastic bags. Biodegradable bags still take a considerable time to degrade and while their use may be preferable in a final treatment or disposal, such bags will continue to have an environmental impact for a significant period. One of the prime objectives of the levy is to influence consumers to change their shopping practice by encouraging the use of reusable shopping bags. I am concerned that exempting biodegradable bags from the levy could encourage retailers to change from dispensing non-biodegradable bags to dispensing biodegradable bags, thereby failing to achieve any change in consumer behaviour in terms of reuse.

In addition, there would be practical difficulties for consumers, retailers and enforcement agencies in distinguishing between biodegradable and non-biodegradable plastic bags. One of the reasons for the success of the plastic bag levy is its simplicity. If a bag contains plastic, then it is, subject to certain limited exemptions, leviable. Local authorities are central to the enforcement of the levy through visiting retail outlets to carry out inspections. While it is relatively simple for an enforcement officer to determine whether a bag contains plastic, it would be extremely difficult to ascertain in the course of an on-the-spot check whether that plastic was biodegradable. Likewise, consumers who have generally been extremely supportive of the levy would not be able to tell whether the bag with which they had been supplied was biodegradable.

It is important to note that the plastic bag levy was primarily introduced as an anti-litter initiative. Data from the national litter pollution monitoring system are used to measure the impact of measures such as the plastic bag levy on litter. While plastic bags accounted for approximately 5% of litter arisings prior to the introduction of the levy, the most recent survey data, for 2010, show that they constituted approximately 0.25% of litter pollution nationally. Biodegradable plastic bags may take up to five years to degrade and thus cause a visible litter problem, thereby undoing much of what has been achieved in removing the blight of plastic bag litter from Ireland's landscape.

The plastic bag levy has been an outstanding success in reducing litter and changing consumer behaviour from the use of single-use bags to reusable bags. A national survey of the environment in 2003 indicated that 90% of shoppers were using reusable or long-life bags. Therefore, in the interests of maintaining the simple and effective levy system in place, it is not proposed to exclude biodegradable plastic bags from the levy.