Tunisia to ban plastic bags

Plastic bags will be banned in supermarkets from 1 March 2017 in an agreement signed on Tuesday by the Tunisian Ministry of Local Affairs and Environment and the syndicate of supermarkets.

Tunisia uses one billion plastic bags each year, 315 million of which are distributed by major supermarkets, Minister of Local Affairs and the Environment, Riadh Mouakhar, explained.

“Once the agreement is implemented, we will target in the second phase, small commercial spaces which distribute approximately 150 million bags per year, bringing the total number of bags disposed in the Tunisian territory at around 500 million bags,” Mouakhar said. The plastic bags will be replaced with environmentally-friendly bags.
The third phase will focus on establishing a decree which will completely ban the production and import of plastic bags below 50 microns, the minister said.

Former Environment Minister, Najib Derouiche, vowed last year that the state would largely fund the manufacturing of biodegradable plastic bags in order to support manufactures that could suffer from the new law.