All Spanish shops will be legally obliged to charge a minimum of five cents for plastic carrier bags. Environment minister, Isabel García Tejerina, says free plastic bags will be banned from January 1st next year in an attempt to cut their use, in line with the European Directive of 2015, which all member States are obliged to apply progressively.
Bags of less than 50 micrograms in density, or the lightweight, easily breakable supermarket kind, cause the greatest levels of pollution, including the water supply, although all sizes of carrier bag will attract a cost.