Up to 140 million carrier bags could be removed from Ireland's waste chain with the introduction of the country's first degradable plastic checkout bag in SuperValu and Centra stores.
The supermarket chains, both of which are owned by the Musgrave group, will replace existing stock with the new environmentally responsible bag which uses degradable compostable plastics.
According to the supermarket chain the new type of bag starts to degrade after 18 months rather than the potential life-cycle of hundreds of years a standard plastic bag has.
Speaking at the introduction of the new bag the managing director of Musgrave SuperValu-Centra Mr Michael Nason, said the product will have a huge environmental impact, with the key factor being the benefit does not depend on changing shopper behaviour.
"As a major Irish retailer we have been concerned about the environmental impact of plastic bags for some time and have taken several initiatives in an effort to cut down on the number of plastic bags used in SuperValu and Centra," Mr Nason said.
The chain said it found past efforts such as the "re-usable bag for life", reinforced paper and canvas bags and re-usable rigid plastic "smart boxes" proved a difficult sell in relation to changing customer behaviour.
