ROME, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Italy's environment minister says there are no plans to extend a grace period for the continued use of plastic shopping bags, which will be banned Jan. 1.
The ban, first proposed in 2007, was originally scheduled to become law on Jan. 1, 2010, but the government postponed it for a year, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
"There is no going back," the environment minister, Stefania Prestigiacomo, said Friday. "Producers had enough time to prepare themselves for this change."
Italians now use about 20 billion plastic bags a year, and experts say they take anywhere from 15 to a thousand years to degrade. Prestigiacomo is planning an education campaign to encourage the public to switch to biodegradable bags or to reusable cloth shopping bags.
"Sustainability is made of little changes to our lifestyle that don't cost us anything and can save the planet," she said.
