Mexico City — Mexico's national plastics industry association has condemned a decision to ban plastic bags in the Mexican capital starting in December 2020 and plastic straws and cutlery and crockery from January 2021.
Mexico City's Congress voted to introduce the bans late on May 9, the eve of the Mother's Day festival, one of Mexico's most celebrated annual events.
"The Asociación Nacional de Industrias del Plástico (Anipac) laments that the Mexico City Congress has not taken into account the [plastics] sector's proposals for the preparation and approval of the reform of the Federal District's Solid Waste Law," Anipac said in a May 10 statement. "It's a decision that will affect the capital's economy and that of its inhabitants, not only the [plastics] industry's."
Anipac added that it had sought "on repeated occasions" to reach an understanding with different officers within the capital city's government with regard to the "bad handling" of solid waste.
Its offer to make available technical studies and alternatives for waste management had been ignored, it said, "and it's for this reason that we condemn the fact that [legislators] have listened only to the opinions of civil society, which has resulted in this plastics ban."
Anipac, which is based in Mexico City, has always considered that tackling plastic waste is the responsibility of society, industry and government. "
José Luis Rodríguez Díaz de León, representing the left-leaning MORENA party in Congress, which currently dominates Mexican politics, said plastics processing companies would be offered fiscal aid if they switch to biodegradable resins.
Anipac responded to that proposal by declaring that "to speak of compostable and/or biodegradable products without having the infrastructure to handle them is risky because compostable products do not integrate immediately with nature, and biodegradable plastics do not disintegrate spontaneously. … This is why Anipac considers [compostable and biodegradable products] an option but not the only one, as stated in the reform that has been approved."
