From 2022, plastic shopping bags will no longer be allowed in German supermarkets. The Bundestag has passed a corresponding ban.

Plastic carrier bags with a wall thickness of 15 to 50 micrometers are affected by the ban – these are the standard bags that you usually get at the checkout. Exceptions are the thin plastic bags, such as those found in the fruit and vegetable department.

On Wednesday, the Bundestag’s Environment Committee, with the votes of the coalition groups, accepted an amendment from the CDU / CSU and SPD parliamentary groups, which provides for an extension of the transition period to January 1, 2022. This should make it easier for retailers to use up the existing stocks of plastic bags. Originally only a transition period of six months was planned.

“The plastic bag is the epitome of wasting resources,” the German Press Agency quotes Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD), who initiated the sales ban. “Good alternatives are shopping baskets, washable cloth bags for fruit and vegetables and reusable boxes for goods from the fresh produce counter.”

For the WWF, however, the ban is only symbolic. According to the dpa, the environmental organization announced that only one percent of German plastic consumption was accounted for by plastic bags.