{"id":188293,"date":"2017-07-30T15:17:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T13:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=188293"},"modified":"2017-07-30T10:18:05","modified_gmt":"2017-07-30T08:18:05","slug":"could-these-new-green-shopping-bags-mean-the-end-of-the-50c-plastic-bag-tax-in-sa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/188293\/could-these-new-green-shopping-bags-mean-the-end-of-the-50c-plastic-bag-tax-in-sa\/","title":{"rendered":"Could these new ‘green’ shopping bags mean the end of the 50c plastic bag tax in SA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has announced 100% biodegradable plastic bags, which it hopes will replace current bags used in South Africa’s biggest supermarkets.<\/p>\n

The bags consist of agricultural by-products and are maize and sugar cane bio-based.<\/p>\n

They are also\u00a0completely biodegradable in mud\u201a soil\u201a water and compost and break down completely in just three to six months.<\/p>\n

Speaking to TimesLive<\/a>, research head\u00a0Sudhakar Muniyasamy said that he hoped to provide interested stakeholders with pilot samples by September, and that they expect the product to be in its commercial stage by early 2018.<\/p>\n

Pick n Pay and Woolworths are two big names confirmed to be involved in the pilot project.<\/p>\n

What happened to your plastic bag tax?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 2003, Government introduced new legislation that would see South Africans pay a tax for the plastic bags they bought at grocery outlets.<\/p>\n

The primary aim of the tax was to curb\u00a0plastic bag litter by reducing public demand for plastic bags.<\/p>\n

Speaking to CGTN Africa<\/a>, Ina Wilken chairperson of the South African National Consumer Union (SANCU) said that within 3 months\u00a0of the new laws being implemented, plastic bag usage had dropped by as much as 60% – 70%.<\/p>\n

However, with usage declining, panic struck manufacturing industry and retailers who then voluntary lowered prices to encourage buying again, he said.<\/p>\n

In 2003, a plastic packet cost five cents, whereas South Africans can now expect to pay fifty cents a packet with eight cents going towards government.<\/p>\n

According to Wilken, this means over R13 million has gone towards government in plastic bag tax from 2003 to 2014.<\/p>\n

In comparison, retailers made over R5.2 billion over the same time period.<\/p>\n

While the money heading to government was supposed to be ring-fenced by government for recycling and jobs in the “green” economy, there is no evidence of this being the case, said Wilken.<\/p>\n

“It’s supposed to be used innovation manufacturing of the bags themselves, so that they can be easily recycled. You don’t see any evidence of this money, revenue being generated by this levy, being used for those purposes.”<\/p>\n

“And I think that’s where the legislation has failed,” he said.<\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0Pick n Pay targets big online grocery push in Joburg<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2003 Government introduced new legislation that would see South Africans pay a tax for the plastic bags they bought at grocery outlets. 14 years ago they cost five cents, now customers can expect to pay fifty cents or more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":188303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188293"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188815,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188293\/revisions\/188815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}