Tunisian Environmental Minister Riadh Mouakher has announced that Tunisia’s supermarket chains will be banned from distributing non-biodegradable plastic bags from March 1st 2017. The move follows a similar decision in Morocco and was announced after reaching an agreement with representatives of large shopping centres.

Tunisian consumers use around one billion plastic bags each year, of which 315m of them are distributed by supermarket chains. A law is set to be enacted by the end of 2017 banning the production, importation and distribution of disposable plastic bags. The use of non-biodegradable plastic bags will be banned in all shops from 2018 onwards.