Ribera assures that the tax on plastic is possible because Spain has a lower environmental taxation than the EU

The fourth vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, has announced that the draft Law on Waste and Contaminated Soils that the Council of Ministers has approved on Tuesday establishes a tax on non-reusable plastic containers that the Government considers adequate because the environmental taxation of Spain is lower than the average of the countries of the European Union.

During the press conference after the Council of Ministers, Ribera presented the Spanish Circular Economy Strategy and the draft law that includes this tax. Specifically, it has specified that this will fall on the manufacture, import or intra-community acquisition of non-reusable plastic containers that will be used in the Spanish state.

The vice-president stressed that with this new tax, Spanish legislation adapts to the recommendations issued in this area by the European Union, which in numerous reports has pointed out that Spain “has a very high margin of action in terms of green taxation”, since it has the fifth lowest percentage of environmental revenues with respect to the GDP of all EU countries.

Ribera who has insisted that the level of environmental fiscal pressure is below the OECD countries, far from 2.4 or 2.5 percent of GDP in all the surrounding countries, since it is at 1.8 percent of GDP. “Therefore, it seems to us a good option,” he said–. “And we want to do it in the flag law, the hallmark of this sector.”

According to the draft will set a tax of 0.45 euros per kilogram of plastic with which the Government estimates that it will be able to collect about 724 million euros.

Although the minister has admitted that plastic “has many positive issues” she has defended that both the Strategy and the future waste law that limits plastics puts an end to the “irrational” use of this product.

For this reason, he pointed out that both the Strategy and the draft law, which are added to the law on climate change and ecological transition sent 15 days ago to the Courts for parliamentary processing, are important because about half of greenhouse gas emissions, 90 percent of biodiversity loss or water stress are directly associated with the way in which they are extracted and treated. resources.

“We would need two and a half Spains to cover what we Spaniards consume each year. Something that is absolutely impossible to manage and that accumulates a deficit of resources of great proportions, “he added.

ALMOST 3,000 BERNABEUS FULL OF WASTE

As an example, Ribera has pointed out that if all the waste produced in Spain per year were accumulated, it could be filled “overflowing” 2,900 times to overflow the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, 500 ‘Bernabéus’ of household waste, 45 ‘Bernabeus’ full of plastic containers.

He also pointed out that if the total of textile remains were accumulated, we would have enough material to make 1,500 million jeans. “He would give us to give a cowboy to every single person in China and he would still give us for a few million cowboys,” he said.

As for plastic in the oceans, where 8 million tons of plastic arrive every year, he has said that the equivalent in the volume of marine plastic waste would give for every 30 centimeters of terrestrial soil to find five 5 shopping bags full of plastic.

“We are talking about an excessive, irrational, irresponsible use but with a high economic cost in our lives. It is a reality that has entered our daily life in our lives, like a plasticized onion on a polystyrene tray or a banana wrapped in plastic, which are an example of the over-packaging that we do not want to continue finding in our stores and that is obviously unnecessary, “he said.

On the other hand, the minister has talked about food waste that also wants to stop the future law because “it is not reasonable that there are people who go hungry and who do not have resources in the face of such a level of food waste and that constitutes one of the economic wastes with less sense”.

Therefore, the draft includes measures such as facilitating donation or taking advantage of them for another type of use in the event that human consumption, for feed or animal consumption is not recommended; the reduction of bottled water consumption as well as measures to avoid planned obsolescence.

In short, in his opinion, the approval of the Spanish Strategy for Circular Economy and Demographic Challenge comes at an “opportune moment”, in which the debate on the reactivation, redirection of the economy to recover employment and important activity begins.

Source: Europe Press