Law has been called “degrading and unnecessary” by lawmaker who once praised it
Israel passed a shopping bag law that charges all consumers to pay for any and all shopping bags they use at supermarkets reports Arutz Sheva.
The law went into effect on the 1st of January and imposes 2.6 cent for each plastic bag taken from the checkout counter in supermarkets and retail stores.
According to the report, the law has unsurprisingly received major backlash from consumers. Some claim that the act “works as an effectively regressive tax on poorer families with large numbers of children” while others complain that the “tax have slowed down checkouts at stores and supermarkets.”
The law was passed unanimously by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. However, some lawmakers who had previously praised the passing of the law have changed their tunes.
Member of Knesset, Bezalel Smotrich, has come out against the law after it went into effect. “I just left Rami Levy [a supermarket chain]. There aren’t any bags – so there aren’t any workers bagging groceries,” Smotrich wrote on Twitter as reported by Arutz Sheva. “What a great way [Finance Minister] Kahlon found for tycoons to cut down on costs with this stupid, unnecessary law.”
Bezalel’s remark has drawn attention because not less than ten months ago he had openly bragged about Knesset’s night session to pass the bill. “Its 2:55 at night. We unanimously passed now the bag law for the second and third readings. [We] work on your behalf even during the wee hours of the night.”
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Maybe we should start making shopping bags in which there is a holder for your children. I used to volunteer in a mall in Thailand (the malls there are huge) and the amount of times children have wandered off from their parents is uncountable. Hoping the Thailand child custody law is not one that takes your kid away after you lose it once or twice… Lol