China and NYC get tough on plastic bags

The Chinese government will ban shops from handing out free plastic bags from 1 June.

Meanwhile, New York City Council passed a Bill yesterday (9 January) that will require large stores to set up recycling programmes, in a bid to reduce the environmental impact of shoppers using nearly one billion plastic bags a year.

Chinese supermarkets and shops have been told to offer clear price tags for plastic bags and charge consumers separately for them.

The General Office of the State Council in China has also banned the production, sale and use of "ultra-thin" bags less than 0.025mm thick. It said they had become the main source of plastic pollution because they can easily be broken and end up as litter.

Dong Jinshi, vice chairman of the waste plastics recycling committee at the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, said the ban would cut the use of plastic bags by more than 60% and raise the recycling rate of "one-time" plastic bags.

David Tyson, chief executive of the Packaging and Films Association, said he had spoken to members that sourced their plastic bags from China and it was not clear whether they would be affected by the ban.

"We have all been taken by surprise by this announcement, particularly as China is the biggest supplier of plastic bags to Europe," he said.

"I think the ban is really about the environmental image of China because of the Olympics in Beijing."

Tyson added that China used only 0.01% of its oil to produce plastic bags.

In New York, shops of more than 465sqm will have to offer recycled bags printed with a recycling message.

The city council said the cost to retailers would be "insignificant" because they could sell bags to recycling businesses, which pay up to £51 ($100) per tonne of plastic bags and turn them into products such as plastic furniture.

Photograph: FreeFoto.com.

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