SKOPJE (Macedonia), January 25 (SeeNews) – Macedonia will ban the use of plastic shopping bags and replace them with biodegradable ones by 2013, local media reported.
Some 25 factories in Macedonia are manufacturing plastic bags but there will be no problem for them to switch over to production of bio-based compostable ones, state-run news agency MIA (www.mia.com.mk) quoting sources from the country's Economic Chamber as saying on Monday.
According to Mirko Jakimovski, the head of the association for production and recycling of plastic bags within the economic chamber, factories need no additional equipment to switch over to production of biodegradable shopping bags but they have to supply bio additives that will make their output a bit costlier, MIA said.
Macedonia banned local stores to give out plastic shopping bags for free as of January 1, 2009 and required shopowners to sell them instead. Since then, the use of plastic shopping bags has been reduced by 40-50 percent.