First phase of shopping bag ban from January next year

The  first phase of the ban on use of shopping bags is to commence from January 2022, the Ministry of Environment has decided.

Minister of Environment Mahinda Amaraweera has instructed the Central Environmental Authority to take steps to implement the ban.

Attention has been focused on banning silly bags in two phases.

The total annual use of silly silly bags in our country has exceeded two billion.

According to data by the Ministry of Environment, the number of free silly bags issued to consumers by two networks of companies in the Sri Lankan supermarket chain is around 01 billion free per year. The number of shopping bags issued per day by a single supermarket chain alone is around 500,000.

The Ministry said, accordingly, it is clear that the volume of shopping bags issued by all other retailers in our country exceeds 02 billion. The problem is that the silly silly bags are never reused. These are used only once. Also, 100 percent of disposable silly silly bags are disposed of in the environment and at least 01 percent of them are not recycled.

Therefore, the Ministry said these single use bags will be banned in two stages.

The first phase will be operational from January 2022. Accordingly, all shopping bags of 10 inches wide, 05 inches deep and 16 inches in height (10X05X 16) and below are planned to be banned in the first phase, said the Minister of Environment, Mahinda Amaraweera.

Substitutes are being introduced to replace these bags and the ban will be enforced whether there are alternatives or not, the minister said. The Minister said that these steps will be taken considering the environmental and health threats to the people of the country, the Ministry of Environment said.