MOSCOW (MRC) -- Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported on 12 November banning the sale of plastic bags up to 50 microns thick and oxo-biodegradable plastic bags in Ukraine from 1 January, 2022 iin its first reading the bill No. 2051-1 of nine deputies of the “Servant of the People” coalition faction, according to Interfax-Ukraine.
For the adoption of such a decision, 365 deputies voted on Tuesday with the required minimum of 226 votes. "Biodegradable bags are the main alternative to plastic bags in the world. However, insufficient legislative regulation in Ukraine has led to a conflict when consumers are misled, believing that the bag they buy does not harm the environment," the explanatory note to the document said.
According to the document, the ban does not apply to ultralight bags (up to 15 microns thick) up to 225 mm wide (without side folds), up to 345 mm deep (with side folds) and up to 450 (with handles) long, used as primary packaging for fresh fish, meat and products from them, bulk products and ice. It also will not touch on biodegradable packages, however, the bill provides for their mandatory labeling in accordance with the National Standard DSTU EN 14995: 2018, DSTU EN 13432: 2015.
The bill provides for the introduction of fines for the sale of plastic bags or oxo-degradable bags under the guise of bio-packages, as well as for inclineation to purchase them in the amount of 100 to 200 tax-free minimum incomes of citizens (nmdg, now 17 UAH - IF), with repeated violation - from 200 up to 500 nmdg.
The authors in the explanatory noted that Ukraine has the necessary capacities for the production of bio-packages, but there is no demand for them yet.
As MRC reported, a group of 60 deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of the last convocation in January this year already registered a similar bill (No. 9057), which implied a gradual refusal to sell plastic bags from 1 January, 2021, but this document was not even included on the agenda.
MRC