China’s Plastic Bag Law Takes Effect
As mentioned previously, China released new standards for plastic bags which will ban ultra thin plastic bags from being produced.
These standards are to take effect from today.
The new law also bans supermarkets and other retailers from providing free plastic bags to their customers. If a retailer wishes to provide plastic bags, they need to charge for them.
Some retailers are concerned about this. They’re worried that they will drive customers away if they charge too much for the plastic bags. Further to this, the plastic bags that are fully degradable are usually more expensive than the non/less-degradable bags. No doubt, this will also have an impact on supermarkets’ pricing decisions.
Hopefully the Chinese will embrace the idea that there are alternatives to plastic bags. Also, now that they’re being forced to pay for plastic bags, more Chinese will start taking their own reusable shopping bags to the supermarket. Given China’s enormous population, this should reduce the world’s plastic bag consumption quite considerably.
Having said this, only time will tell.
Tags: china, plastic bags, reusable bags
