Supermarkets issue 100 billion shopping bags a year

By Ifham Nizam

Sri Lankan supermarket chains issued more than 100 billion shopping bags to consumers every year and 10 million lunch sheets were added to the environment daily, Dr. Anil Jasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Environment said.

He said so at a programme jointly organised by the Ministry of Environment and the Colombo Municipal Council at the Viharamaha Devi Park.

Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of Environment, Rosy Senanayake, Mayor of Colombo, foreign ambassadors and other dignitaries were also present.

Minister Amaraweera said plastic and polythene posed a serious threat to the entire world. He said that Sri Lanka was one of the few countries that still used lunch sheets. The population of our country is 21 million but we release 10 million lunch sheets to the environment everyday.”

Amaraweera added that discarded ballpoint pens too posed a threat to the environment and the country’s schools alone discarded about 80-100 kilogrammes of ballpoint pens a day.