EU to Propose Plastic-Bag Tax as China Curtails Waste Imports

The European Union plans to propose a tax on plastic bags and packaging to help fill a budget gap and “in the interest of the world’s oceans,” the bloc’s budget chief said.

“What we wish to do is reduce the total volume of plastic in the environment,” EU Budget Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in Brussels on Wednesday. “We are going to be proposing the possibility of introducing a tax on plastics to incentivize the reduced use of plastic packaging.”