Bintang Supermarket in Bali has announced that it has eschewed single-use plastic bags and wrapping in favour of more environmentally-friendly alternatives.
This is a common practice in the island, as earlier this year the administration imposed a ban on the use of plastic bags.
Instead of plastic, the supermarket’s vegetables, fruits, and other fresh produce is wrapped with banana leaves and secured with bamboo straps.
“We started to use banana leaves about a month ago,” said I Wayan Budiono, the assistant store manager. The idea of reducing the use of plastic bags came up about two months ago. Many customers have lauded the mini-market’s move and are encouraging them to minimise the amount of plastic used in store as much as possible.
Budiono explained that the supermarket first substituted the plastic tape and plastic wrapping used to bind vegetables with banana leaves and bamboo straps. Although the rule has not been implemented across all their products, they aim to slowly incorporate the use of environmentally friendly materials to the rest of their products in due course.
Source: Kompas
Image: Kompas