The social development project IDEA (International Dialogue for Environmental Action) has given the go-ahead for using biodegradable shopping bags in Azerbaijan.

Unlike the more widespread polyethylene shopping bags which are used currently, biodegradable shopping bags which are accidentally released into the environment quickly degrade and are absorbed into the soil. By contrast with normal plastic or polyethylene shopping bags, which can remain intact in the environment for hundreds of years, biodegradable bags rot down in the soil in a very short time, leaving almost no unwanted traces of themselves behind in the environment around us.

Biodegradable shopping bags are already available at large shopping outlets and shopping centres such as Bazarstore, Grand, Neptun, Premium and Continental.