TIRANA, Feb. 1 – Environmentalists and activists have sewn some 5,000 canvas shopping bags in a bid to raise awareness among consumers to reduce the massive use of plastic bags, which often pollute the capital city and even block sewer systems and manholes, causing flash floods.
The Tirana Municipality introduced last weekend the “Grandma bag” massively carried by Albanians under communism just until the early 1990s when everybody had to take a canvas bag to go shopping.
“In your grandparents’ time and in my parents’ time, there were no plastic bags in Albania. Everybody used canvas bags to do the shopping. Today, we use plastic bags on everything,” said Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj last weekend when some 500 activists and vocational training education students were involved in sewing some 5,000 tote bags.
“There are millions of plastic bags being used every day in Tirana, which in fact is a big problem for sewer systems getting blocked and ending up in rivers and seas and it is in vain saying we want to develop tourism when everything is polluted with plastic bags,” said Veliaj.
“This is a great initiative. This year we want to totally reduce plastic bags in Tirana, and in some places even ban their sale. I am happy some supermarkets and groceries have embraced our initiative and from now on they will use canvas shopping bags and not plastic bags,” added the mayor.
With almost every item sold coming with a free plastic bag in the whole of Albania, Tirana is targeting to become the first Balkan capital city to stop the use of plastic bags in supermarkets.
“We will start working gradually so that by June 5 [World Environment Day] by introducing the concept of multi-purpose shopping bags, we will reduce to a minimum our addiction to use plastic bags,” mayor Veliaj had earlier noted.
Several countries have imposed extra fees on plastic bags to discourage their use.
The introduction of mass consumption in the past two decades of Albania’s transition to a market economy has also lead to an enormous increase in consumer waste, including plastic bags and other wrapping material. Very often this plastic ends up in the environment, polluting streets, rivers and the countryside across the country, says the UN office in Albania.
