Ministry of Environmental Protection to Do Away with Throwaway Bags

I am not a big fan of Amir Peretz, now Minister of Environmental Protection, but I am in favor of his plan to do away with throwaway plastic bags.
As reported by Globes, the ministry is promoting the end of throwaway plastic bags as given out in stores.. to replace them, they will give away, for free for the first few initial months and then for a fee, multi-use plastic bags.

Minister of Environmental Protection Amir Peretz is trying to fix what his predecessor failed to do. Under the plan, multiuse plastic bags will be distributed to the public for free over several months, after which the use of throwaway plastic bags will be ended.
According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, more than 2.2 million plastic bags are used in Israel every year, more than half of which are distributed by grocery stores and supermarket chains.
The timetable for the switch to multiuse plastic bags has not yet been set, and Ministry of Environmental Protection director general David Leffler is due to draw it up in collaboration with large retail chains. However, during 2014, the ministry wants to distribute to the public an alternative to throwaway plastic bags in the form of multiuse plastic bags. These plastic bags will initially be distributed free, jointly financed by the ministry and retail chains, along with a simultaneous ad campaign, but later, will again cost money. The distribution of throwaway plastic bags to shoppers will be stopped.

I reuse those throwaway bags all the time, except when they tear while loading or emptying groceries, but I guess that is not good enough to consider them multi-use. I do sometimes feel pangs of guilt when using so many bags for my groceries and pining for the days of the good old brown paper bag... People will not be happy about having to pay for bags...
I hope that when the ministry finally gets rid of all these bags, they don't just throw them into some landfill....
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