Aglandjia declares war on plastic bags

‘WE say goodbye to the plastic bag. You?’ is the slogan of a new campaign by the Aglandjia municipality to reduce the use of plastic bags and protect the environment.

On Thursday, the municipality announced the basic design and the proposed actions of the campaign which is planned for 2017 and handed out canvas bags to the principals of Aglandjia elementary schools, one for each student.

The municipality announced their decision to carry out the campaign, as they put it “considering the serious environmental consequences of the uncontrolled disposal of plastic bags and in connection with the yearly adoption of a policy for environmental protection and the improvement of the residents’ quality of life by the municipality.”

The aim is to reduce the use of the bags by informing and educating residents, students, owners of shops and businesses about the environmental consequences of the use of plastic bags and start an open dialogue with all stakeholders to find alternatives.

A study in 2015 found that on average every Cypriot uses a minimum of 125 plastic bags per year.

Around 90 per cent of these lightweight bags are often used only once, the study revealed.

As a result of decisions taken at EU level, member states will either have to impose a price on plastic bags by the end of 2018 or limit the annual consumption of plastic bags to 90 per person by the end of 2019, and further reduce this number to 40 by the end of 2025.

In light of these regulations, the Cyprus government has recently announced supermarkets will have to charge customers an amount for the bags from 2018.

As plastic bags can take hundreds of years to decompose, accumulation is a major problem around the world.

In the past 25 years, 10 per cent of all animals found dead around the world were tangled in plastic bags.

The Aglandjia campaign was announced at a press conference at the cultural centre ‘To Skali’ by the Mayor Costas Cortana in the presence of Polis Michaelides, General Manager of CNP Cyprus Insurance.

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