It just signals and punishes. The EU wants to show the environmentalist hippie students that it cares. They want your vote! On the other hand, they want to punish the people! Remember the guy who threw away his plastic bottle and littered the environment? We got you guys, the EU is here to save you and punish those people! 

But the truth is that it is just signalling. (And a huge waste of resources too)

Here are the official OECD figures on plastic:
Only 5% of all plastic entering the environment comes from littering.
EU countries have one of the lowest rates of waste management and littering.

It does not help the environment, it makes production more resource intensive, it annoys people. But hey, we did something!

https://m.primal.net/LJjd.png 
https://m.primal.net/LJjf.png 

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