International Plastic Bag Free Day

Belgrade, July 3 - The International Plastic Bag Free Day is dedicated to raising awareness of the negative impact of plastic on the living world and providing specific examples of how each of us can contribute to overcoming this critical ecological problem. Initiated by the organization Zero Waste Europe in 2008, this day is marked on July 3 in an increasing number of world countries.

Research shows that on average, a human uses a plastic bag for only 25 minutes, after which he either throws it away into communal waste bins or leaves it somewhere in nature for a decades-long self-disintegration process. In that process, plastic pollutes water, land, animals, and a human, because toxins are joined to micro-plastic in oceans and thus enter our food chain. On top, with time, massive reefs have been formed in oceans from the piled-up plastic waste, of which plastic bags have the largest share.

As a socially responsible company, Yettel is working on reducing the use of not only plastic bags but other types of plastic as well. Almost ten years ago, we replaced plastic with paper bags in the retail channel, and this year we decided to take one step further. We decided to exclude plastic water cups from water machines from July 1 to 15 in HQ and regional centers in Subotica, Novi Sad, Niš, and Kragujevac.

If the pilot projects succeed, this practice will become part of our regular activities, such as selective waste disposal in HQ and collection of used bottle caps for the association "Bottle Cap for Handicap."