The City Council of Querétaro unanimously approved the Regulation of Environmental Protection and Climate Change in this municipality that, among other measures, restricts the use of disposable plastic bags at local supermarkets.
The regulation establishes sanctions on establishments – not on consumers – that fail to comply with this provision, ranging from the confiscation of disposable bags to the impossibility of renewing the license or fines proportional to the size of the trade.
The only bags that will be restricted from April 1, 2018, when this regulation comes into force, will be the disposable plastic used to carry products, instead, the reusable bags of any material, biodegradable and plastic disposables that are used for packaging reasons will not be regulated.
Marcos Aguilar, municipal president of Querétaro, said that “protecting the environment is a fundamental principle to build a more sustainable city with a better quality of life. Under this premise, the government in my charge has promoted the greatest environmental policy in the history of our municipality. ”
Aguilar Vega recalled that the disposition to eliminate the use of disposable plastic bags is the result of a diagnosis that determined that the use of this material is extremely harmful to the environment.
In the municipality, two million disposable plastic bags are used daily, which generate eight thousand kilograms of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere everyday. Each of them takes between 100 and 500 years to degrade, damaging terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems at that the same time.
“The objective is not to sanction, it is to create awareness, it is not to punish, it is to collaborate as a city to save our planet,” he stressed.
Although it was previously announced, the municipality of Querétaro does not have a budget to provide recyclable bags to each of the families of the municipality.
The president of the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism, Gerardo de la Garza, said the members of the chamber agree with the elimination of disposable plastic bags. And added that the stores will remove the plastic bags they have in stock, before the regulation enters into force (April 2018), and will approach authorities to resolve their doubts about its implementation.
Source: El Financiero
