Declaring war on the “white pollution” choking the world’s most populous country, China is banning free plastic shopping bags and calling for a return to the cloth bags of old—steps largely welcomed by merchants and shoppers on Wednesday.
The measure eliminates the flimsiest bags and forces stores to charge for others, making China the latest nation to target plastic bags in a bid to cut waste and conserve resources.
The ban takes effect June 1, barely two months before Beijing hosts the Summer Olympic Games, ahead of which authorities have been demolishing run-down neighbourhoods and working to clear smog.
Under the new rules, businesses will be prohibited from manufacturing, selling or using bags less than 0.025 millimetres thick, according to a government order.
More durable plastic bags will still be permitted for sale by markets and shops.
The regulation, dated Dec. 31 and posted on a government website Tuesday, called for “a return to cloth bags and shopping baskets to reduce the use of plastic bags.”
The regulation comes as Beijing steps up efforts to fight pollution that has accompanied China’s breakneck economic growth. Factories and plants that churn out low-cost products for the world’s consumers have severely fouled the country’s air and water.
The order continues a years-old campaign against plastic waste, or “white pollution,” that initially targeted the plastic foam lunch boxes whose decaying shells were once ubiquitous in China.
Plastic shopping bags are given out with even the smallest items, although the statement gave no estimates as to the specific number of bags consumed in China or the potential savings in terms of the petroleum used to produce them.
In the United States, which has less than one-quarter of China’s 1.3 billion people, the Sierra Club’s Sierra magazine estimates almost 100 billion plastic bags are thrown out each year. The Sierra Club estimated that if every one of New York City’s eight million people used one less grocery bag per year, it would reduce waste by about 2.3 million kilograms.
