Cyprus Parliament passed a bill recently according to which all consumers will be charged a minimum € 0.05 for plastic bags as of July 2018, in an attempt to raise awareness about the plastic waste that pollute the environment. Cyprus already has introduced various legislations about recycle and reduce of waste and landfills.
Parliamentarians said that the legislation was long overdue and assured that they will closely monitor the implementation of it.
Environment Committee Chairman Adamos Adamou said that plastic bags should have been banned altogether but added that the Legal Service of the Republic reacted , arguing that a study had to be in place before that to examine the consequences on Cyprus society.
He added that there are clauses in the bill which provide for the money to be collected from the consumer fee to be used for the manufacture of reusable bags to be supplied for free to consumers and to various environmental awareness programs.
Adamou mentioned that the aim is to reduce to almost half the amount of plastic bags each person uses in Cyprus but the Parliament will be monitoring how the implementation goes and will discuss the issue again at a later stage.
