There’s hope: Bali supermarket ditches plastic packaging for banana leaves

Bali’s plastic ban came into effect officially as of June 23rd, 2019.

Make a Change World: “Although the ban is officially in effect, the government is in a period of adaptation. The Pergub Bali No. 97 2018 (the ban), which should be fully in action in a 6 months period, is radical and will prohibit retailers, consumers and distributors on all level of trade to use single use plastic bags, straws and polystyrene. This means from the modern retailers to traditional markets, warungs, to the city and village level, these single use plastics will not be anymore in use.”

As long as we can make a start in getting rid of scenes like this.

What’s the alternative? Going back to the past.

“We have started to use banana leaves [for this purpose] around one month ago,” I Wayan Budiono, the assistant store manager, recently told The Jakarta Post.

Budiono said the idea had come up after the place stopped providing single-use plastic bags to customers around two months ago. Not only were visitors supportive of the new policy, but they encouraged the supermarket to go one step further by minimizing the use of plastic as much as possible.