CHINA BANS PLASTIC BAGS: The Chinese government has imposed a ban on thin plastic bags such as the ones shown in these photos being used by street and food vendors in Shanghai.
Image: David Biello
More In This Article
-
Sidebar
The Changing Fortunes of Wild and Captive Animals in China
-
Photo Album
Friend or Food: Scenes from a Chinese Animal Market
-
Sidebar
Death Toll May Climb in China Earthquake Aftermath
-
Sidebar
In China: A Moment of Silence to Mourn Quake Victims
-
Sidebar
Blog: Beijing, a city looking for the blues
-
Photo Album
Slide Show: Beijing's Building Boom
-
Sidebar
More Aftershocks in China Quake Zone
-
The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
Read More »
SHANGHAI—Thin plastic bags are used for everything in China and the Chinese use up to three billion of them a day--an environmentally costly habit picked up by shopkeepers and consumers in the late 1980s for convenience over traditional cloth bags. Fruit mongers weigh produce in them, tailors stuff shirts into them, even street food vendors plunk their piping hot wares directly into see-through plastic bags that do nothing to protect one's hands from being burned or coated in hot grease. They even have a special name for the plastic bags found blowing, hanging and floating everywhere from trees to rivers: bai se wu ran, or "white pollution," for the bags' most common color.
Yet, the Chinese government is set to ban the manufacture and force shopkeepers to charge for the distribution of bags thinner than 0.025 millimeters thick as of June 1—and no one seems prepared. "I don't know what we'll do," Zhang Gui Lin, a tailor at Shanghai's famous fabric market, tells me through a translator. "I guess our shopping complex will figure it out and tell us what to buy to use as bags."
His wife adds: "Maybe it will be like this," tugging a thicker mesh orange plastic bag she is using to carry some shoes. Such thicker bags may prove one replacement for the ubiquitous thinner versions.
The clothes makers are not alone. "I don't know actually," says a vendor of Chinese tamales, known as zong zi, who declined to give her name. "I'm sure the government will come up with a solution. Maybe people will just eat it [the zong zi directly.]"
The Chinese government is banning production and distribution of the thinnest plastic bags in a bid to curb the white pollution that is taking over the countryside. The bags are also banned from all forms of public transportation and "scenic locations." The move may save as much as 37 million barrels of oil currently used to produce the plastic totes, according to China Trade News. Already, the nation's largest producer of such thin plastic bags, Huaqiang, has shut down its operations.
The effort comes amid growing environmental awareness among the Chinese people and mimics similar efforts in countries like Bangladesh and Ireland as well as the city of San Francisco, though efforts to replicate that ban in other U.S. municipalities have foundered in the face of opposition from plastic manufacturers.
More than one million reusable cloth bags have already been sold on various Chinese merchandising Web sites, according to Taobao.com, and local environmental groups, such as Shanghai Roots & Shoots, are promoting and giving away cloth bags in schools.
"Too many plastic bags is a great waste of natural resources," retired Communist Party cadre Liu Zhidong says through a translator. "When burnt, they produce poisoning smoke, and if buried underneath the ground they need more than 300 years to be degraded."
But it remains to be seen how strong enforcement will be. Specific penalties have not been set but will include fines. Other environmental efforts—such as a similar ban on disposable wooden chopsticks (a waster of trees) and so-called "green GDP," or gross domestic product, an effort to account for environmental costs when calculating overall economic development— fell by the wayside because they proved too difficult to implement and created significant opposition at the local level. It also remains to be seen whether some of the possible replacements—thicker or biodegradable plastic bags—will be any better.
"This is a very good measure to protect the environment. However, whether it can last long is still very doubting," chemistry graduate student Oliver says. "And another problem is [that] the so-called biodegradable plastic bags, it seems, cannot be totally degraded. Whether or not they are really good for environment protection in the long run remains unknown."
See what we're tweeting about
16 Comments
Add CommentFunny, I used to think paper bags were just fine and shunned plastic bags for a long time, then gradually started using them exclusively. Longterm thinking obviously didn't go into their onetime use, just like styrofoam peanuts they're a pain to dispose of. Cloth bags were promoted for awhile, but never caught on, too much advance planning I guess. Besides, I almost always buy more than I plan to. Forcing people to relate to new realities is not very pleasant, but people invariably adapt to new situations.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have seen this kind of white pollution in South Africa in 2003. It is terrible that people dispose of their bags by letting the wind take care of them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe argument that they "burn producing dangerous fumes" is not entirely true. If burnt with municipal waste under controlled conditions, this kind of plastic can actually serve proper electricity production and burn very cleanly.
I personally switched over completely to a folding shopping crate which I always have in my car.
All very interesting, but plastic bags are at best a third order environmental issue. In fact they are more environmentally responsible than many of the alternatives. See here http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_content.asp?CID=1102&DID=5615 for some of the real facts about the use of plastic bags.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's pretty good for China. For now, as I know, many People shopping in supermarket in China have turned their not good habit to the better habit. Particularly those youth people quickly change their mind and bought many cloth bags in order to keep their stuff rather than using unbiogradual plastic bags!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat's really big change for China. Actually not just for China, everybody who still prefer to use plastic bags everyday, i urge u guys it's better to change ur action to keep our environment fine!!!
Thanks for covering this topic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlastic Bags are a good tool to bring attention to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
We most apply this to other areas of our consumerism as well.
www.goriseup.com has programs for schools to implement this into the curriculum.
As I have said to others, this reinforces the notion that China is essentially ungovernable. I believe many will still use the bags unless thre are massive prosecutions. Most jurisdictions plan and provide advice on alternatives when any thing of this nature is introduced.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKind of interesting this is in the news today. Here an article about a high school kid who isolated a plastic eating bacteria. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pollution/Whizkid_makes_plastic_biodegradable_in_3_months/articleshow/3073683.cms
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow there is a solution and much better alternative to levying, recycling and reusable canvas grocery bags for those who forgets their canvas bag at home or in the car which is called "Bioplast Biodegradable Plastics."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBioplast is a manufacturing company of BIOPLAST Branded Biodegradable Garbage Bags and Fridge Bags for the household markets and for the industry as well as Biodegradable Carrier Bags and Vegy Bags for the retail sector using their own patented unique formula of bacteria enzyme base substrate as against starch base as used by other manufacturers world over which is not as strong or durable as polymer (plastic) bags and has a cost addition of 300%-400%.
Bioplast is the only Biodegradable technology in the world using bacteria enzyme base substrate which is 100% biodegradable within 6 months after disposal as per ASTM-D 5988-1996 and EN 13432:2000/ISO 14855 standards with the lowest cost addition.
http://www.bioplast.com.tr
We have prepared for the banning for several months. During these months, we tried not to use plastic bags as much as possible in our daily life. We took our own bags(of course, not plastic bags, but those cotton bags) with us when going shopping. I think we will do better!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI dont know what i will use for trash bags when they bann plastic bags at the store. I thought that the bags(plastics in general) dont decompose at all now that i hear that there is a time limit on their existance i dont think it is a big issue. I use at most 5 per week. But still the research will undoubtadly drive development in other areas such as solar pannels i hope. And better ways to decompose such things. From a different article they said they can cut the decomposition from 300 to 10 years. That is great. That is the ultimate recycling no?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI usually re-use them for trash bags. So where shoud the trash go if I don't use them?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Earth has been facing immense pollution from our garbage and consumption. The latest deadly pollution is plastic bags that fill up the landfills. With plastic bags becoming a growing concern, <a href="http://www.ecotrendbags.com/products.html">cotton canvas bag</a> has become the new way to help stop the pollution.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWith plastic bag pollution being a rising concern, many shoppers need to start using reusable cotton <a href="http://www.ecotrendbags.com/products.html">canvas bags</a> in order to stop the pollution.
Plastic bag pollution is very deadly and takes hundreds of years to break down. Even if the component is broken done, the deadly chemicals will go into the ground and water system. By reducing the usage of plastic bag, Earth can recuperate. That's why cotton bags should be used world wide to help reduce the pollution.
It is our generation to stop the pollution and start using cotton <a href="http://www.ecotrendbags.com" >canvas bags</a> as the solution. With global warming going out of hand from gas exhaustion, we don't need any more problems especially plastic bags that are harmful when broken down naturally. These broken down elements cause sickness and destruction to the air, soil and water system.
Use cotton canvas bags starting today as a way to stop the plastic pollution that is becoming a major threat to the environment. Our lives are threatened ever more from the growing usage of plastic bags. It is time you bring a canvas bag to shopping the next time you go to a supermarket.
Please learn more at http://www.ecotrendbags.com/
The Earth has been facing immense pollution from our garbage and consumption. The latest deadly pollution is plastic bags that fill up the landfills. With plastic bags becoming a growing concern, <a href="http://www.ecotrendbags.com/products.html">cotton canvas bag</a> has become the new way to help stop the pollution.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWith plastic bag pollution being a rising concern, many shoppers need to start using reusable cotton <a href="http://www.ecotrendbags.com/products.html">canvas bags</a> in order to stop the pollution.
Plastic bag pollution is very deadly and takes hundreds of years to break down. Even if the component is broken done, the deadly chemicals will go into the ground and water system. By reducing the usage of plastic bag, Earth can recuperate. That's why cotton bags should be used world wide to help reduce the pollution.
It is our generation to stop the pollution and start using cotton <a href="http://www.ecotrendbags.com" >canvas bags</a> as the solution. With global warming going out of hand from gas exhaustion, we don't need any more problems especially plastic bags that are harmful when broken down naturally. These broken down elements cause sickness and destruction to the air, soil and water system.
Use cotton canvas bags starting today as a way to stop the plastic pollution that is becoming a major threat to the environment. Our lives are threatened ever more from the growing usage of plastic bags. It is time you bring a canvas bag to shopping the next time you go to a supermarket.
Please learn more at http://www.ecotrendbags.com/
In many countries politicians have ignored or seriously misunderstood oxo-biodegradable plastic,but in others governments have realised the role it can play. In the United Arab Emirates oxo-biodegradability is
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisnowcompulsory.
For a video of oxo-bio plastic degrading see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3TGqcpWJTM
It is a familiar misconception that plastic bags just break into small
pieces. When an oxo-biodegradable bag has fragmented it is no longer a plastic because its molecular structure has been completely changed.
It is then a material which can be bioassimilated in the environment, just like a leaf. However, if collected during its useful life, oxo-bio plastic can be recycled just like normal plastic
(http://www.biodeg.org/position-papers/recycling/?domain=biodeg.org )
China has never been considered an environmental role model. I used to think paper bags were just fine and shunned plastic bags for a long time, then gradually started using them exclusively. When burnt, they produce poisoning smoke, and if buried underneath the ground they need more than 300 years to be degraded. Webmaster done great job & well maintain. This post or information is really helpful for me thanks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this<a href="http://maxpak.com.au/blog/disposable-gloves-latex-gloves-part-i/">latex gloves</a>
China has never been considered an environmental role model. I used to think paper bags were just fine and shunned plastic bags for a long time, then gradually started using them exclusively. When burnt, they produce poisoning smoke, and if buried underneath the ground they need more than 300 years to be degraded. Webmaster done great job & well maintain. This post or information is really helpful for me thanks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://maxpak.com.au/blog/category/vinyl-gloves/