September 26 (SeeNews) - The Belgrade city parliament has decided to ban the offering of plastic shopping bags by retailers at their stores as of 2020, deputy mayor Goran Vesic said on Wednesday.
"The decision will come into force on January 1, 2020, which means that we give a period of more than 15 months to retail chains to solve this problem," Vesic said in a statement.
According to the decision, the shopping bags that retailers offer to customers at the points of sale should be made of paper or textile. Offenders will face a fine of up to 150,000 dinars ($1,490/1,267 euro).
The city authorities strongly support the ban because it concerns the environmental protection of the city and they plan to adopt further decisions to enhance it in the future.
"It is time for Serbia to deal with this issue in the way it is done in more developed countries. The decision to pay for plastic bags in retail facilities reduced their use by about 60%," Vesic said.
Last year, Serbia's government signed an agreement with two retail chains to stop giving plastic bags to customers for free at their stores in the country. Two more retail chains joined the project in 2018.
(1 euro = 118.426 dinars)