Shopping bags

The price of single-use plastic bags at supermarkets and some other stores will rise from 4 to 9 cents on January 1 as part of the effort to reduce their use. The aim is for each citizen to use no more than 90 bags annually by 2020 and 40 by 2025.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Nov. 13 submitted a draft law to the parliament updating the regulatory regime for packing and waste proposing the ban of free plastic bags at supermarkets. The regulation is planned to be effective as of Jan. 1, 2019.

The European Parliament has voted to ban a range of single-use plastics such as straws, cotton buds and cutlery and to ensure most bottles are recycled in a bid to curb ocean pollution.

Chile has become the first South American country to legally ban the widespread commercial use of plastic bags.

The new legislation, approved by Congress and enacted by President Sebastián Piñera, gives small shops two years to adapt to a total ban.

Larger business will have six months to stop using plastic bags.

The minister added that it "turned out there was no need to immediately ban plastic bags, since charging them in big retail chains is producing good results."

Asked whether plastic bags would in fact be banned, Trivan said this was the goal that is being "moved toward," and noted that 30 countries have done it so far.

It sounds too good to be true — a plastic bag made from corn starch that breaks down with food waste and leaves no remnant plastic to make its way into the oceans.

These "compostable" light-weight bags for fruit and vegetables are being trialled in two South Australian supermarkets.

Three plastic bag manufacturers have shut down, output in the industry has dropped 80 percent and workers are being laid off as the plastics sector reels from the 0.04-euro environmental levy slapped on each single-use plastic bag since January 1.

Revenues from the sale of plastic bags at Greek supermarkets have reached about 4 million euros since the initiative was launched on January 1, according to the Research Institute of Retail Consumer Goods (IELKA).

Greek plastic bag industries are reporting an annual decline in output by 80 percent in the first quarter of the year as a result of the imposition of an environmental tax on the commodity from January 1, 2018.

This dramatic shrinking in production is about to lead to the shutdown of at least three small companies in the sector, according to informed sources.

Just a month in, an initiative aimed at reducing consumers' dependence on plastic carrier bags by charging for them appears to be bearing fruit, as some supermarkets have recorded a drop of as much as 50 percent.