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
March 24th, 2011 at 2:03 am
I’ve been living in Shanghai, China for the past 10 years and coincidentally, I work in the plastic recycling business. Anyway, it’s been almost 3 years since China started the ban on plastic bags in supermarkets and to be completely honest, I don’t know if this has decreased the overall usage of plastic bags, here’s why:
1) Supermarkets very often give away plastic tote bags as gifts.
2) Plastic bags can be very cheaply purchased in supermarkets. Around 3 cents (USD) for medium sized grocery bags. 4.5 cents (USD) for large grocery bags.
3) Plastic bags are still available where the vegetables and fruits are. Many people actually pull extra ones to store their groceries in after checkout.