German cabinet approves plan to ban supermarket plastic bags

Berlin (dpa) – Germany’s cabinet agreed on Wednesday to ban supermarket plastic bags.
The proposal from Environment Minister Svenja Schulze excludes small fruit and vegetable bags but biodegradable bags will be banned.
“Plastic bags are the epitome of wasting resources. They are made from crude oil and often only used for a few minutes,” she said in a statement.
The German parliament will now pass the law and there will be a transition period of about six months for the remaining stock of plastic bags to be reduced in shops. The time frame depends on when the law is passed.
Initially the German plan was to charge customers for plastic bags. Only around 20 bags per capita were used in 2018, compared with 68 in 2015. But it was decided consumption would still not fall enough so an outright ban has been approved.