Plastic Bags in Europe
 

Did Italy ever enact the ban on Plastic bags? I plan on bringing a cloth one for shopping, but was wondering if the ban ever went into law despite England's objections. Have any other European countries ban plastic bags?

Can't speak for the immediate, but they still had plastic bags last year -- small charge for each one.

When I was there, someone told me they were still haggling over implementation of the ban on plastic, but I really don't know if that's changed.

In groceries and supermarkets, the only plastic bags tend to be those corn-starch ones, with some exceptions. A few groceries in my town still have real plastic, but I suspect that they're allowed to use up their old stock. The supermarkets charge for the bags, even the compostable ones. In small groceries they tend not to charge.

Fishmongers still use real plastic bags, so there must be an exception for fish. Also, other types of merchant (selling clothing, small appliances, shoes, etc.) are still using plastic (or paper shoppers).

I recently heard that new, more rigid rules would be implemented soon, but who knows if it will happen. I use cloth bags myself.

There is no union-wide ban on plastic bags.
What has been decided was that member states can ban or tax plastic bags nationally.

good. They ban them where I live and it has really cut down on usage a lot, and it is even evident in the reduced trash in the rivers/other runoff. They aren't really banned, they just are taxed at 5 cents. YOu'd be surprised that this amount matters at all, it is so trivial, but it does. Somehow people won't spend 5 cents if they are too lazy to keep some bags in their car or something, which is easy to do, so I've seen them carry stuff out in their arms instead of paying that nickel. Which is fine with me.

When I travel, I like to buy local recyclable bags for shopping, it can make a nice souvenir, I like having a varity of local names on them.

I know in France, you can easily buy the recyclable ones at checkout at places like Monoprix, Carrefour, etc., but last time I was there last Fall, there was no charge for plastic if you wanted them. I know they were trying to pass a law that would totally ban them beginning 2016, but not sure if that has finally been passed or not.

We're in Italy now. Plastic bags are used everywhere. I'm not aware of any fee or tax on them.

In italy, according to the last law from august 2014, no single-use bags other than bio-degradable ones are allowed, selling-distributing others is highly fined (upwards of €2500).
The small but important detail that many are overseeing in the discussion is the word "single-use". The good old plastic non-bio-degradable bags that are thicker than a certain limit (depending on size/shape/handle length) are considered multi-use and hence perfectly legal.
The 5/10 cent fee that some retailers apply is a voluntary action trying to discourage consumers, but not a tax.

Here is a link to the regulations (including further links), in italian: http://www.polycart.eu/ultime-notizi...a-shopper.html

I know the ones that are not biodegrdable are awful ecologically - but then don;t people just end up buying a lot of larger plastic bags to throw their garbage out in?

Here you cannot throw out garbage in paper bags - the sanitation department will fine the hell out of you - just as if you were ignoring the reccyling rules. For apartment buildings they have extra large extra thick bags (sort of like body bags) that the compacters shoot the garbage into. But we are allowed to put only plastic bags down our trash chute.

Thanks for all the input since we are staying in apartments some of the time I will be sure to ask about the rules