The Knesset plenum passed on Wednesday the first reading of a series of new environmental laws, aimed at reducing pollution and protecting Israel’s natural resources. Along with new, tougher administrative sanctions against corporate polluters, the legislature approved a new law banning stores from giving away free plastic shopping bags.
The plastic bag bill prohibits stores, including supermarkets, from giving away the familiar double-handled plastic bags used to carry products home. The ban, under discussion for months, finally passed the first stage of approval, and it awaits two more readings until it is enacted as a law.
Under the new bill proposed by MKs Esterina Tartman (Israel Beiteinu party) and Dov Khenin (Hadash), stores would be permitted to sell bio-degradable bags at the cash register. The ban on free bags would not apply to the smaller bags used to collect produce, which customers would be able to continue to take for free.
This bag bill is a weaker version of a proposed ban on all distribution and sale of the bags.
"We know the Israeli public—the moment they'll have to pay for the bag either they'll take just one or they won't take any at all," said MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor), chairman of the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee.The bill also calls on the Environmental Protection Ministry to oversee that all such bags that businesses sell be biodegradable.
In addition to the law on plastic bags, the Knesset approved a new set of penalties for existing environmental laws, including a tougher schedule of sanctions against businesses and organizations found to be illegal polluters.
The harsher penalties introduced under the so-called “polluter-pays” law would hit corporate polluters with administrative sanctions up to NIS 2.4 million, require polluters to pay for environmental restoration, and impose a fine equal to the economic advantage accrued by the polluter in a particular instance of violation.
The polluter-pays law would also update laws, originally implemented by the British Mandate in 1936, that enforce the protection of beaches and forests. A law prohibiting the uprooting of trees, for instance, will now carry a penalty of almost NIS 50,000.
MK Khenin, along with MK Michael Melchior (Labor), proposed the new pollution law as leaders of an environmental faction of 19 Knesset members.
"The polluter-pays law effectively tackles the basic problem of environmental hazards. Up until now, economic interests in Israel made it worthwhile financially to pollute the environment. The new law now makes environmental pollution economically disadvantageous," said Khenin.
Melchior added that "by attacking the pocketbooks of polluting companies, we can arrive at a situation where our earth, water and air will be cleaner."