• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Download full size image

China Ready to Ban Thin Plastic Shopping Bags

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 May 2008, 13:25 CDT

China announced that on Sunday it will begin the process that will ban the production of plastic shopping bags under 0.025 millimeters thick.

Other countries such as Ireland and Bangladesh have also banned the popular bags.

These bags raise concerns because they are so thin, shoppers usually throw them away after one use, which adds to the waste in a country like China, that is increasingly conscious of the air and water pollution caused by economic growth.

If vendors break the law and continue to distribute the bags, they could face fines and have their goods confiscated.

It takes 37 million barrels of crude oil each year to make 3 billion plastic bags to be used by China’s 1.3 billion people each day.

Ma Zhanfeng, secretary-general of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, expects the ban to bite.

"Domestic demand for plastic bags will drop drastically from 1.6 million tons a year to around 1.1 million tons," said Ma, who has nearly 20 years' experience in the industry.

Ning Rongju with Friends of Nature, a local non-governmental organization, says all will depend on whether the new rules are enforced, especially in cities such as Beijing, where demand for bags in the capital's many markets is huge.

"The execution and monitoring of the law will actually determine the future of plastic bags," she said.

Some bag makers have already been driven out of business due to the ban.

The plastic bag industry is highly segmented, with factories in almost every province.

Chinese officials hope the ban will help the sector of plastic processors during an economic slump due to the rising costs of raw materials.

One major centre is Taizhou, a city in southeastern Zhejiang province where more than 10,000 manufacturers of plastic products enjoy sales of 40 billion yuan ($5.73 billion) each year, according to the Taizhou Plastic Industry Association.

Chen Jiazeng, the group's director, admitted that "small factories might ignore the rule and keep making ultra-thin bags" as long as they can make money.

Taizhou Xinxing Plastic Packing Co Ltd, which employs 300 people and has annual sales of about 15 million yuan, mostly from plastic bags, is considering switching to other plastic goods.

"The new policy will make plastic bags even more expensive," Su Xiaobing, the company's sales manager, explained . "We won't have any price advantage then."    

Source: redOrbit Staff and Wire Reports

More News in this Category