Berlin. Environment Minister Svenja Schulze wants to reduce pollution from discarded cigarette butts fight. It is calling for the tobacco industry to contribute to the costs of cleanup work, such as on beaches, in the future. Discarded cigarette butts are a major problem for the environment, as the toxins from cigarettes can end up in the soil and in rivers, lakes and the sea.
Globally, cigarette butts are the most common Plastic waste in the environment.
Schulze hopes that "a Europe-wide ban on superfluous single-use plastic will be introduced this year. The European Parliament had already expressed its support for the Planning the new single-use plastic directive for cost sharing. However, the cost-sharing step would not be enough. The environment minister said that "more drastic measures would have to be taken worldwide".
Anton Hofreiter, parliamentary group leader of the Green Party, criticized the behavior of the SPD politician. "While Environment Minister Schulze is promising the plastic turnaround in Berlin, she is watering down the laws needed to achieve this in Brussels," said the parliamentary group leader. He added that there is an urgent need for a clear avoidance target for single-use plastic and binding measures to hold manufacturers accountable. The German government must "follow up the cheap words with tangible actions" so that something will change in the future.
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