GreenSage E-zine 01/2008

China Bans Plastic Bags, Sets Tougher Fuel Standards

China banned the production of thin plastic bags with its announcement, Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 and outlawed their use in supermarkets and shops beginning June 1. The surprise move from China's cabinet is based on the belief that the country uses too many plastic bags without adequate recycling, as reported by Reuters.

Chinese citizens use as many as 3 billion plastic bags a day. "While providing convenience to consumers, they have also caused serious pollution, and waste of energy and resources, because of excessive use and inadequate recycling," a notice, posted on the government's website, said.

Calling for a return to cloth bags is a step largely welcomed by merchants and shoppers. Beijing residents appeared to take the ban in stride, reflecting rising environmental consciousness and concern over rocketing oil prices.

The ban takes effect barely two months before Beijing hosts the Summer Olympic Games. As part of the pre-Olympic cleanup, the city has been demolishing run-down neighborhoods and working to clear smog. The government also has tightened its fuel standards to improve air quality in Beijing before the Olympics. In addition to building new subway lines, Beijing retailers must sell gasoline that meets the Euro IV standard to help cut sulfur dioxide emissions. The higher cost of the fuel will not be passed onto consumers.

Under the new plastic bag rules, businesses will be prohibited from manufacturing, selling or using bags less than 0.025 millimeters (0.00098 inches) thick, according to the order issued by the State Council, China's Cabinet. The council's orders constitute the highest level of administrative regulation, and follow-through is carefully monitored.

ultra-thin plastic bags are banned in passenger trains, vessels, buses, planes, stations, airports and scenic spots. Relevant supervisors must make sure their underlings would not offer such bags.

Science and technology departments must increase input to develop technologies helpful of adding value into used plastic products.

Finance and tax authorities are urged to give tax a bigger role in controlling production, sales and use of plastic bags and support recycling and comprehensive utilization of used plastics.

More durable plastic bags will be permitted for sale by markets and shops.The order urges waste collectors to step up recycling efforts to reduce the number of bags burned or buried. Finance authorities were told to consider tax measures to discourage plastic bag production and sale.

Internationally, legislation to discourage plastic bag use has been passed in parts of South Africa, Ireland and Taiwan, where authorities either tax shoppers who use them or impose fees on companies that distribute them. Bangladesh already bans them, as do at least 30 remote Alaskan villages.

Last year, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban petroleum-based plastic grocery bags. In France, supermarket chains have begun shying from giving away plastic bags and German stores must pay a recycling fee if they offer them. Ireland's surcharge on bags imposed in 2003 has been credited with sharply reducing demand.

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 fouled the country's air and water.

Dong Suocheng of the China Institute of Resources, said two-thirds of China's cities are marooned in belts of garbage, only a fraction of which is buried. Each person produces an average of 264kg of rubbish every year, totalling nearly one million tonnes a day, according to official figures. With the urban population set to rise from around 45% to 60% of the total by the end of 2020, that volume is rising at a terrifying rate.

The ban on bags brings China in line with a growing international trend. The order continues a years-old campaign against plastic waste, or "white pollution," that initially targeted plastic foam lunch boxes whose decaying shells were once ubiquitous in China.

Shopkeepers started handing out cheap, flimsy plastic bags to customers about 15 years ago, roughly the same time that China shifted from being a net oil exporter to being a net importer. In recent years, large Western or Japanese-style supermarkets have begun to supplant traditional markets, eliminating the need for shoppers to bring their own bags.

"Our country consumes a huge amount of plastic shopping bags each year," the State Council statement said. "While plastic shopping bags provide convenience to consumers, this has caused a serious waste of energy and resources and environmental pollution because of excessive usage, inadequate recycling and other reasons," the statement said.

Plastic shopping bags are given out with even the smallest items, although the statement gave no estimates as to the number of bags consumed in China or the potential saving 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 estimates that if every one of New York City's 8 million people used one less grocery bag per year, it would reduce waste by about 5 million pounds.

In New York on Wednesday, the City Council was set to vote on a measure that would require large stores to recycle plastic bags.

The environmental group Greenpeace issued a statement welcoming the Chinese ban. "The State Council's announcement to ban free plastic bags is a perfect case to combine the two of the major forces in environment protection: public participation and government policy guidance," Greenpeace said.

In Shenzhen, a booming city in south China's Guangdong Province, retailers use at least 1.75 billion plastic bags each year. Most of those bags would decompose only after 200 years and some would never, said the local environmental protection department.

Ahead of the national directive, Shenzhen announced last November it was considering placing fees on the use of plastic bags, with fines from 5,000 to 50,000 yuan (667 to 6,667 U.S. dollars) for retailers that gave them away for free. That move was met with opposition from retailers.

The government signaled it may tweak the tax code to give the recycling industry a boost.