Ban on plastic bags

The Europe-wide ban on plastic carrier bags proposed by Janez Potocnik, the European Commissioner for the Environment, has been criticized by the German association for plastic packaging and films, IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen. The organisation states that the European survey currently conducted is accompanied by an explanation with incomprehensible claims.
The EU commission does not seem to be aware of the fact that currently, there are no plastic bags available which dissolve within a short period of time in nature without any outside influences. Moreover, plastic carrier bags commonly consist of high quality, pure polyethylene, than can be recycled very well. Therefore, the PE bag is not a waste product after use, but a valuable raw material. One prerequisite is, however, that it is correctly collected within recycling systems.
A possible ban would punish those countries which have previously been model implementers of the EU packaging directive. It would be preferable to enlighten the population to collect carrier bags and recycle them correctly. In addition, plastic bags can be used several times without any problems.