Biodegradable Bags Cause Outrage in Italy. (It’s Not Really About Bags.)<br />Mr. Ciafani said that if the aim of the European directive was to reduce the number of plastic bags, the Italian law missed what could<br />have been an opportunity to, for example, adopt the mesh bags used in many northern European countries to bag fruits and vegetables.<br />Vittorio Feltri wrote that We pay half of our income in taxes, and then our blood boils for a bag that costs a euro cent,<br />Paghiamo al fisco la metà del nostro reddito poi ci va il sangue agli occhi per un sacchetto che costa un centesimo di euro.<br />The government was firm on one point: The new bags could not be given out for free,<br />and the charge of 1 euro cent to 3 euro cents per eco-friendly bag had to appear on the sales bill.<br />Acting under a 2015 European Union directive addressing the global disaster caused by plastic bags, which take hundreds of years to degrade, Italian lawmakers enacted a measure banning the use of plastic bags for fruit, vegetables<br />and baked goods in favor of eco-friendly biodegradable and compostable alternatives.<br />"The reuse of the bags could determine the risk of bacterial contamination," the<br />director general of the Health Ministry Giuseppe Ruocco told Italian media.<br />Italian news outlets reported that the annual cost per family averaged between €4<br />and €12.50 per year, or about $4.80 to $15, depending on how much one paid per bag.
