A video was circulating last week where a grocery shop owner was filmed asking a customer to pay LL500 for an extra plastic bag. I heard a similar story from a friend of mine at a local supermarket. This has become common practice in a lot of countries worldwide mainly to reduce the use of plastic, but it’s a different story in Lebanon.

Those plastic bags are not produced locally, and given that raw material costs for practically every thing have gone up while businesses’ profit margin is shrinking daily, it’s normal to see stores charge customers for plastic bags.

In all cases, whether the shop is doing it for environmental reasons or economic ones, the outcome is less plastic bag use which is beneficial to everyone.

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