For two plastic bags, Macedonians will pay as much as a loaf of bread

November 30th Tuesday, 2021, is the last day Milena Irikovska is served with free plastic bags in a Skopje store, where she makes shopping every day for more than 20 years.

Under the new Law on Management Ambalage and Waste from Ambalage, which was adopted on October 4th, citizens of Northern Macedonia from December 1st, for every biodegradable plastic bag will have to pay 15 denars (about 25 cents).

These bags can be recycled and processed.

Such bags, so far, have been given free at some stores or the same have been paid from 1 to 10 denarii.

Milena tells Radio Free Europe that the expensive plastic bags will force him to carry bags of cloth to avoid paying 30 denarii for two plastic bags. With as much money as they cost, he says he wants to buy a bread.

Let's have 15 denarii, it's good that plastic bags are expensive, because you see how much we've polluted spaces everywhere. I'm gonna get a bag of fabric from today, just like my mom used to do when she went shopping at the market, says Milena.

Minister of Life Environment and Spatial Planning in Northern Macedonia Naser Nuredini says that with the new law, under which the use of plastic bags is limited, waste management will be possible under European standards.

He says the money raised by the sale of higher-priced bags will go to a special fund, which will be designated for environmental protection, as well as citizens' awareness of the importance of waste management.

“Fondi, which will be created by these 15 denars for any plastic bag purchase, will go to a special fund, which will be invested in the environment, but will also be invested in citizens' awareness of how to manage waste in our country. The idea is that the one who pollutes, pays”, Nuredini says.

From civic initiative “Stop plastic bags”, which has been vocal in terms of, according to her, uncontrolled use of plastic, say that with the new law, unfortunately, the total use of plastic bags is not prohibited, as has been done in many European Union countries.

The “is not about stopping the use of plastic bags and replacing them with paper bags or the fabric material, but, unfortunately, just about increasing their price. This is not done in European countries, part of which it aims to become North Macedonia”, says Zdravko Saveski from the “Stop plastic bags” initiative.

Referring to official data, he says about 14 tonnes of plastic bags are dropped in northern Macedonia within the day.

14 tons of plastic bags are used in the daily. You can imagine how high that figure is. Try this figure to visualize and understand the seriousness of the problem with the use of plastic bags, since you know that if you put a plastic bag in a natural environment, you will have to wait thousands of years for it to be completely degraded. So you can imagine the huge damage the poisoning of land from plastic bags, which we consume through food products”, says Saveski.