Spain Is Banning The Sale Of Fruit And Vegetables In Plastic Wrapping

Spain has announced it will ban the sale of fruit and vegetables in plastic packaging from 2023.

The Ministry for Ecological Transition revealed the new measure will hopefully will cut down the country's use of single-use plastics.

Any produce that weighs less than 1.5kgs will be forbidden to be wrapped in plastic within two years, however there will be some products that will escape the ban if they're 'at risk of deteriorating when sold loose'.

The decision is aimed at fighting 'the overuse of packaging in the most effective way', with a ministry spokesperson telling El País that plastic pollution has 'exceeded all limits'.

Carlos Arribas, head of waste at Ecologistas en Acción said in a statement: "It is scandalous that they sell a banana surrounded by plastic. The consumer has the right to be offered a reusable version of the products they consume."

The European country is also hoping to make all food packaging 100 per cent recyclable by 2030, as well as cut the sale of plastic bottles in half.

The Ministry of Ecological Transition says Spain generates as much as 1.6 million tonnes of waste from plastic packaging every year.

Shockingly, less than half of that waste is recycled and the two thirds of what ends up in landfill doesn't get turned into something new.

Relevant authorities are also considering other measures like installing 'drinking fountains in public spaces', 'introducing alternatives to the sale of bottled drinks' and reducing 'the distribution of single-use drinking cups' at public events.

The government is looking at whether it should set up a system of deposit and return for people wanting to recycle their waste as an incentive, which is done in other European Union countries.

Earlier this month, Spain announced it would be introducing a tax on single-use plastics after the EU introduced the levy last year as a way of raising funds to combat the cost of the coronavirus pandemic.

The draft Law on Waste and Contaminated Soils builds on legislation brought in in 2011.

According to Lexology, the tax is levied 'on the manufacturing, import or acquisition within the EU of non-reusable packaging that contains plastic, semi-finished plastics that are used in the manufacturing of the packaging, as well as any plastics that are used for the closing, commercialisation or presentation of single-use plastic packaging'.

Featured Image Credit: Alamy

Topics: News

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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