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Bye to plastic bag full of trouble

By Wang Jingqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-02 11:42

Want a plastic shopping bag? Pay for it. That's what shoppers were told at cash counters of supermarkets, department stores and groceries across the country yesterday.

Following a government order aimed at reducing pollution, retailers stopped giving free plastic shopping bags from yesterday.

Plastic shopping bags undoubtedly make shopping convenient, but they also harm the environment.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), at least 1,300 tons of oil is needed to make the bags given out by supermarkets alone every day.

"Plastic bags are not bio-degradable," Men Xiaowei, a Ministry of Commerce official, said in an online interview. "And plastic accounts for 3-5 percent of the daily waste, most of which come from plastic bags."

That's why "customers have been urged to carry their own bags," he said. "To limit the use of plastic bags is to protect the environment."

The government has banned ultra-thin or thinner than 0.025 mm plastic bags too because the thinner the plastic sheet the more harmful it is to the environment.

But the question is: Can the Chinese people, who have enjoyed free plastic bags for more than a decade, kick their habit? And what do the vendors think?

"It doesn't matter how much a plastic bag costs. What matters is our effort to protect the environment," Wang Yali said while packing grocery into a cloth bag.

A woman surnamed Wang, shopping at Jian-Mart, said: "I will carry my own bag and use plastic bags only when I really need them."

"I don't think 0.2 yuan ($0.03) for a bag is too high," said another shopper. "I will carry a cloth bag when I go to the market. Only when I have lots of things to buy like today, I wouldn't mind buying one or two plastic bags."

But Wang Jingnian, a vegetable vendor said he would keep offering free bags because "0.2 yuan is an insignificant amount and I don't mind giving free bags to my customers, for vegetables are not suitable to be kept in cloth bags."

Many customers, too, think plastic bags are a necessity, and an absolute ban will be hard for them to follow. "I have to use plastic bags, especially for fresh meat and vegetables, and I think 0.1 yuan for a bag is acceptable," a woman surnamed Ye said.

Retailers have begun charging 0.2 yuan for small plastic bags and more than 10 yuan for the ones made of cloth. Supermarkets such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Jian-Mart have set up green channels, too, for shoppers carrying their own bags.

Shopkeepers are free to set their own prices for the plastic bags but they should not be cheaper than their cost. "Some retailers are worried that they may lose their customers if they charge too much for the bags," Men said. "But our goal is to reduce the use of plastic bags."

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