STO People’s Choice to start charging for shopping bags

State Trading Organization’s (STO) People’s Choice announced the decision to start selling both plastic and paper shopping bags to customers.

As per STO, this was an attempt to reduce the usage of plastic bags.

STO will commence charging for bags from Monday, July 17 onwards.

Charges for shopping bags:

-        Plastic bag: MVR 2.5 per bag

-        Paper bag: MVR 2 per bag

The supermart urged its customers to bring alternative options such as cloth bags when shopping.

Speaking to Sun, a media official from STO Abdulla Mohamed said that they have attempted to sway people away from plastic bags by offering small discounts to those coming with alternative options like cloth bags.

However, he noted that the habit has not taken hold within the community.

“Our target is to reduce the usage of plastic such as bags that harm the environment. That is why we decided to implement some charge for plastic bags.”

He went on to state that the price set was not necessarily big or small, but now customers have the option of not paying any additional charges when they bring their cloth bags.

Additionally, he stated that they expect to receive backlash on some level as they navigate enforcing habits that the community is not used to.