Hardly forbidden, already forgotten: nobody misses the plastic bags
Created: 01/17/2022, 06:35
By: Raphael Scherer
Bah: A plastic bag floats over corals in the sea.
The plastic bag ban should help against such pollution.
The retailers mourn her little.
© dpa
Ban on plastic bags in retail: The new bag rules have met with great approval from retailers in the Ebersberg district.
Ebersberg – Hardly forbidden, long forgotten: the plastic bag.
Since the New Year, these may no longer be sold in retail outlets.
For most retailers in the district, however, the paper bag has long since arrived as an alternative: "Nobody misses the plastic bags," says the Rewe supermarket in Steinhöring, for example.
"We haven't been selling plastic bags at the checkout since last August," confirms Saskia Kugler, authorized signatory at Edeka Stefan Alex in Ebersberg.
"Certain foils" are still allowed in the fresh food department, but they are made from recycled plastic and are as thin as possible, she explains.
The same applies to meat: the branch has already switched to paper bags for the most part.
“We are doing our part to reduce the amount of plastic,” it says.
Butcher switched years ago
The Heimann butcher's shop in Grafing also stopped using plastic bags long ago: "We switched to paper bags three or four years ago," remembers Peter Heimann junior.
There were also tote bags as Christmas gifts, which customers would like to reuse, he says.
The butcher's shop has also switched from plastic to wooden cutlery for lunch.
In the coming weeks, the butcher will also be introducing “Rebowl” bowls: the customer pays a one-time deposit of five euros and can then take the bowl home with their food.
Rinsed at home, he can give it back the next time he visits and receives his next meal in a bowl that has been rinsed again by the butcher.
The biggest problem in avoiding plastic in the butcher's shop: the vacuum bags for fresh meat.
"They are still indispensable, there is nothing on the market that would be just as good," says Heimann.
He tries to use the thinnest variant.
There are now compostable bags
In the Eschlbach organic market in Poing, there have been plastic bags "for ages," says owner Renate Polk. If packaging is needed, such as the foil around the salad, the shop relies on compostable bags. "People don't even recognize the difference," she says and laughs contentedly. Many of their customers would already bring their own shopping baskets with them - which they believe to be the most environmentally friendly option. "But there are also some organic customers who think: the planet is saved with a paper bag," she says. Not many people realize that the production of paper also requires a lot of water and energy: "I have customers who put each carrot in their own paper bag and then feel ecological," she complains.Sometimes even the plastic version is the better alternative.
The retailers agree that it would be even more environmentally friendly if customers were allowed to bring their own containers and got their goods straight in at the counter.
However, there are still various hurdles, from legal to pandemic-related hygiene regulations.
Paper bags are not necessarily better for the environment
According to Johannes Dirscherl, head of the Ebersberg municipal waste management department, it remains to be seen whether the ban will prove to be efficient in practice.
With paper bags, it depends on how they are made and how durable the material is, he explains.
"If that's no good, it backfires."
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