China Bids Farewell to Free Plastic Bags

Since environmental action, by its very nature, has to be global in order to be successful, it’s certainly heartening to see efforts taking hold all over. Effective June 1st (this past Sunday, to be exact), the reusable bag revolution hit China as a free plastic bag ban went into effect all across the mainland.

As of June 1, all supermarkets, department stores and grocery stores in China are prohibited from providing shoppers with free plastic bags for their purchases. The move, announced at the beginning of this year, is aimed at reducing pollution as well as freeing up oil supplies for other products.

While plastic bags won’t be eradicated entirely (just yet), the ultra-thin 0.025 millimeter grocery bags — often doubled-up and the most common type found caught in trees and drifting in oceans — are now off-limits in favor of a sturdier variety, and even those now come at a price, forcing consumers to rethink their daily routines and hopefully spurring on what Chinese officials are referring to as a “habit revolution.”

From this week onward, consumers in mainland China will be subjected to a fee of three jiao (US$0.04) per plastic bag provided by retailers. The Chinese government is promoting a ‘habit revolution’ in which consumers reduce the number of plastic bags they use when making retail purchases. Shoppers are also being encouraged to bring their own reusable bags to stores when shopping.

Interestingly enough, as the article points out, China has been at the forefront of the plastic bag war for quite some time with positive results, reusable bags reportedly becoming not just a trend but an accustomed way of life — not a bad goal, and one that is making its way out of China and going everywhere in a hurry.

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 11:12 am and is filed under The Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.