Are plastic bags on the way out?
China joins other countries in their fight against plastic bags.
China has joined other countries in the growing global trend to phase out plastic bags. The state council, or cabinet, posted a notice on its website in January stating that the country's use of 3 billion plastic bags a day was putting "intolerable pressure" on the environment and resources. China will ban the manufacture, sale, and use of plastic bags less than 0.025 millimeters (mm) thick, and firms that flout the new rule will face fines. The government wants to encourage people to return to carrying cloth bags and baskets. Come June, shops in China will no longer offer their customers free plastic bags, although they will be able to sell bags thicker than 0.025 mm because they tear less easily and are less likely to be discarded.
Australia's environment minister has also announced (PDF: 60KB) his wish to ban all plastic shopping bags by the end of 2008, and New York City voted to require large stores to collect and recycle all used plastic bags and to sell cloth or reusable ones. Last year, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags; stores there can offer only biodegradable alternatives made from potato starch or cornstarch.
In 2002, Bangladesh became one of the first countries to ban plastic bags, because the bags were found to clog drains during monsoon flooding. A year before, Bombay (India) introduced a ban for similar reasons. Ireland's "plastax" on carrier bags, established in 2002, has been credited with sharply reducing demand for plastic bags in that country.
Parts of South Africa, Bhutan, and Taiwan have also passed legislation to discourage plastic bag use. Europe is following suit, but while governments debate taxes and bans, a town in Devon (U.K.) organized its own campaign and now claims to be the first European town to be free of plastic bags. Paris banned all nonreusable bags in 2007, and all German stores must pay a recycling fee if they wish to offer them.
