Plastic bags to be replaced by cloth ones.

LAHORE -- Authorities in the Punjab government intend to encourage production of cloth bags by the local industry as an alternative to plastic bags, rejecting biodegradable bags as a replacement for the latter, which it is going to ban.

Official sources on Friday said that production of plastic bags for industrial packaging, garbage collection and hospital waste would continue.

'We only intend to ban the production and usage of plastic bags for shopping because they clog sewerage lines and cause pollution when burnt, which appears impossible any other way,' an official said.

Sources said that the government might not allow production of biodegradable bags because they too could not be dissolved...