Chile has become the first Latin American country to ban the distribution of plastic bags across all shops.
Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt said the final piece of legislation banning the bags would be implemented, La Tercera newspaper reported on Monday, citing the minister.
After the initial laws on plastic bags came into force in August 2018, the country’s major supermarket chains had six months to stop distributing them.
Smaller shops were given two years.
Those who still supply the bags can be fined up to the equivalent of about 350 dollars.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, this law has prevented the use of about five billion plastic bags since 2018.
