STO to cease use of plastic bags

State Trading Organization (STO) has announced the decision to cease the use of plastic bags.

STO’s Managing Director Hussain Amr told Sun on Wednesday that the company will begin the initiative by discontinuing the use of plastic bags in its pharmacies.

Amr said plastic bags will be replaced with paper bags.

The decision will be implemented on August 1.

“If we do this, we will be able to prevent import of MVR 1 million in plastic bags in a year,” said Amr.

Amr said the company made the decision to support the government’s initiative to cease the import of single-use plastics in Maldives.

The decision to phase out the import of single-use plastics was announced by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih at the 74^th UN General Assembly in 2019.