Every German citizen still uses an average of 54 plastic bags per year. The ban on disposable bags since January will hardly stop this – data from environmental aid now show that. Because supermarkets use a loophole, quite legally.
Most plastic bags have been banned by law for six months, but many retailers continue to offer them. This is the result of a query by the German Environmental Aid (DUH), which is exclusively available to ntv. According to this, 6 of the 13 largest German supermarket and drugstore chains still have disposable plastic bags in their range. This affects the companies Edeka, Netto Nord, Netto Markendiscount, Norma, Müller and Rossmann. Environmental aid accuses them of acting “irresponsibly” and “mendaciously.” “Like no other product, single-use plastic bags stand for senseless waste of resources and environmental pollution,” says Federal Managing Director Barbara Metz.
The dealers’ actions are not illegal, but they exploit a deliberately built-in loophole in the law. Accordingly, only plastic bags that are between 15 and 49 microns thick are banned. According to the survey, the supermarkets and chemists concerned are now offering bags with a slightly thicker wall of between 50 and 60 microns and are declaring them to be reusable. Instead, environmental aid speaks of environmentally harmful disposable products with an expected short service life. “Retailers like Norma, Rossmann and Edeka try to talk their unecological bags nice with appropriate reusable slogans,” says the head of the circular economy at the DUH, Thomas Fischer.
Company: Customers use bags several times
When asked by ntv, most retailers pointed out that their customers still wanted plastic bags. You also get feedback from them that they actually use thicker bags several times, according to the drugstore chain Rossmann. Edeka writes that they are motivated to do just that with appropriate imprints. All retailers emphasize that their bags are usually made from recycled plastic. They have even been awarded environmental seals because of their high recycling content, according to the supermarket chains Norma and Netto Marken-Discount. Many of the companies also point out that the plastic bags that are still available are not free. However, you can get them for 10 cents from drugstore Müller, for example, and 25 cents from Netto Nord.
Environmental aid is now calling on the federal government to take action. Environment Minister Steffi Lemke must adjust the ban so that plastic carrier bags can only be offered in reusable form, said Managing Director Metz. Without a doubt, they are only reusable from a wall thickness of at least 120 micrometers – i.e. 0.12 millimeters.
The Federal Environment Ministry defends the current legal situation. The thinner bags were disposable products, but thicker ones would last longer, a spokesman for the ministry told ntv. “So one can hope that they are a reusable alternative.” You also have to stick to the rules of the EU packaging directive, which does not provide for a ban on thicker bags. However, the federal government will talk to its European partners about whether it is possible to go further.
Incidentally, particularly thin plastic bags for packing fruit, vegetables or meat are completely exempt from the ban. The federal government wants to continue to allow these so-called shirt bags, primarily for hygienic reasons. She also fears that in the event of a ban, retailers would offer many previously loose items pre-packaged again. That would probably result in an even larger use of plastic.
Due to the exceptions for thick and very thin bags, only 1.5 billion of the last 4.7 billion bags consumed in Germany per year fall under the ban that has been in force since January. The environmental aid called on even more consumers to go shopping with reusable carrier bags, baskets, nets or backpacks. On the other hand, she does not consider disposable paper bags to be a good alternative because of their poor ecological balance.