Slovakia Welcomes EU's agreement on single-use plastic ban

The single-use plastic ban agreed by the relevant EU's bodies on Wednesday is good for Slovakia, said the Slovak Environment Ministry State Secretary Norbert Kurilla at an EU Environment Council session in Brussels on Thursday. According to Kurilla, Slovakia is satisfied with a commitment to ban throwaway plastics by 2029 if more environment-friendly alternatives are found. "This is also closely related to policies pursued by the Slovak Environment Ministry," said Kurilla, adding that Slovakia is promoting a circular economy. He noted that Slovakia has already introduced mandatory fees for plastic bags and adopted measures making it more disadvantageous to dump waste at landfills, at the same time supporting waste sorting. Meanwhile, the Slovak ministry wants to launch a new deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and single-use aluminium cans, said Kurilla.