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ollowing a trial period in which people were charged for plastic bags in several cities last year, the government will ban conventional plastic bags and introduce a more expensive, biodegradable type in a bid to cut plastic waste.

The use of plastic bags in Indonesia has increased over the past 10 years, standing at approximately 9.8 billion plastic bags per year, while 95 percent of them ended up as waste, according to Environment and Forestry Ministry data.

Biodegradable plastic bags, which could cost significantly more than regular plastic, are believed to be able to raise people’s awareness and reduce negative environmental impacts, the ministry’s waste management director, Sudirman, said.

The ministry will issue a ministerial regulation in February banning regular plastic shopping bags, making way for more environmentally friendly plastic bags to be sold at retailers.

“We hope that in 2019 there will be no more plastic bags that are not environmentally friendly,” he said.

This follows a trial period in which more than 500 cities last year charged consumers Rp 200 (0.02 US cents) for plastic bags at retailers. The idea was put forward in the wake of the government’s goal to cut 1.9 million tons of waste from the 68 million tons projected in 2019. However, it met a snag following retailers’ reluctance to continue the policy.

To ensure the smooth implementation, the ministry has given each regional administration the freedom to make their own road map together with local retailers.

There are currently three plastic bags deemed to be more environmentally friendly than regular shopping bags, which could take hundreds of years to decompose. They are bio-plastic bags, oxo-degradable plastic bags and a mixture between bio and techno plastic bags.

Sudirman said the government would eventually only allow biodegradable plastic bags, made from renewable resources such as corn starch, and thus deemed as the safest option. All three types of plastic bags are recognized by the Indonesian National Standards (SNI).

“However, they still need to be limited because they will degrade [fast] when in an open area. But if these two types of plastic bags go into the ground and the sea, they will degrade slowly. And even if they degrade, they will turn into micro plastic particles, which are dangerous to the marine ecosystem,” Sudirman said.

A 2015 United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report on biodegradable plastics and marine litter said oxo-degradable plastics could still pose a threat to marine ecosystems even after fragmentation, as the report found that in marine environments, the fragmentation was fairly slow and could take up to five years, during which the plastic objects continued to litter the sea.

As the government is pushing for the adoption for environmentally friendly shopping bags, concerns are mounting as to whether the policy is the answer to Indonesia’s waste problem.

The UN report suggests that labeling products as “biodegradable” increases the public’s inclination to litter and thus it is not a quick fix.

Sudirman said the introduction of biodegradable plastics aimed to deter people from buying shopping bags at modern retailers, as biodegradable plastics were very expensive.

Once the regulation is issued, all customers will have to pay for plastic bags when shopping at malls, department stores and supermarkets.

“That’s why the wisest option is to bring your own shopping bags. That’s our true goal, to educate the public,” said Sudirman.