Just as Nerja town hall announces that it will be distributing 3,000 reusable cloth backs in the hope of getting people to stop using eco-damaging plastic, German supermarket chain Lidl has come out and said it will stop the sale of plastic bags in its Spanish stores before the end of the year.
The measures pre-empts talk of Brussels banning the sale of single-use plastic bags by 2020, a measure already in place in the Balearics.
When asked about Lidl’s decision to ban them now, Managing Director Claus Grande said Lidl’s plans go much further than those being talked about by the EU with the German supermarket opting to sell paper bags and bags made from palm tree fibres.
Lidl claims the store’s new policy will stop the production of over 100 million bags per year and while it may cost Lidl in sales, it is a win for the environment.
According to some studies, the average use of a supermarket plastic bag is 12 minutes, yet they are a source of pollution that can take over 500 years to decompose.
