Plastic Bags Have Not Been Banned, They Have Become More Expensive: 'Zhoghovurd'

‘Zhoghovurd’ newspaper reports that from today onwards, Armenian supermarkets and stores will offer customers thicker and more expensive bags. This information was provided to ‘Zhoghovurd’ by supermarket employees. For more than 10 days, the sale of plastic bags has been prohibited in Armenia under the law on amendments to the 'Trade and Services' law.

It should be noted that this law was adopted back in the spring of 2020, and the ban on the sale of single-use plastic bags came into effect on January 1st. However, despite this, bags are still widely used in almost all stores. But that’s not all; it turns out that regulatory bodies are not yet technically prepared to check the micron of bags at retail points.

Meanwhile, the authorized body, the Yerevan city municipality, was not even aware that it would be responsible for overseeing the bag issue in the capital. Arthur Ghahalyan, Deputy Head of the Strategic Policy Department of the Ministry of Environment, mentioned in an interview with ‘Zhoghovurd’ newspaper that “This issue has been clarified; there is no problem. Now there are purely technical issues related to the procurement of measuring devices and their verification. These can be purchased in a day, but they need to be verified first; the devices must be checked and stamped by the relevant bodies.”

When asked by ‘Zhoghovurd’ if it would have been possible to consider all this before January 1, to procure and verify these devices, Arthur Ghahalyan responded, “The regulatory body should have been informed and prepared in advance. If a law is adopted, naturally, it is coordinated with the relevant authorized bodies during the development process. In this case, the authorized body is the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure. We sent additional information already in January, but I believe the authorized bodies should have been aware of the changes.”

In this instance, the authorized bodies are the community municipalities. ‘Zhoghovurd’ attempted to obtain comments from the Yerevan city municipality regarding this issue, but our phone calls went unanswered.