Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) wants to involve the tobacco industry in the future in the cost of cleaning up discarded cigarettes. „Anyone who makes disposable items such as cigarettes will have to assume more responsibility for the garbage in the future,“ Schulze told the newspapers of the Funke Media Group. For example, the cigarette industry could be involved in the cost of cleaning beaches or parks.
The European Parliament had first demanded a tobacco industry contribution as a tightening measure to the proposed one-way plastic policy. The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers are discussing the directive today.
Schulze told the spark newspapers, she hopes that „this year a Europe-wide ban on superfluous disposable plastic on the way“ brought. Europe was not alone. Instead, one must „resort to more drastic means than before“.
Green parliamentary leader Anton Hofreiter, however, accused Schulze of a „double game“: „While Environment Minister Schulze promises the plastic turnaround in Berlin, she watered down the necessary laws in Brussels,“ said Hofreiter the spark newspapers. There is an urgent need for a clear avoidance target for disposable plastic and binding measures in order to make manufacturers compulsory. The federal government must „follow the cheap words and solid acts,“ said Hofreiter.
Both the European Parliament and the Commission and the EU Member States had approved a ban on disposable plastic at the end of October. Disposable products such as straws, plastic plates or cotton buds should be banned from the market after a transitional period. An appropriate law is to be voted on by the end of the year.
