Signs things are a changin'

[yonitabonita]

Yesterday two little incidents gave me reason to feel optimistic about the future here in Beijing.

For months I've been telling the cashier at my local Wumei supermarket that I don't want a plastic bag. Yesterday, as the woman scanned my tofu I was about to say it again, but this time she caught me and told me that even if I wanted a plastic bag, I couldn't have one. Apparently, from yesterday onwards there would only be paper bags available. As the people behind me in line bitched up a storm, I couldn't help but grin.

Then on my way home from the gym, I rode across Chang An Jie and noticed the police were stopping a bunch of drivers and pulling them over. As I got closer, I saw that they police were conducting random breath testing. They had their little breathalysing gadgets out and asking people to blow into them. I guess some bureaucrat out there cares about drunk driving.

Has anyone else witnessed similar events?

Yonitabonita

[skylee]

Are paper bags really better than plastic bags?

[adrianlondon]

yeah, cos they decompose and/or can be recycled.

[Rincewind]

I reuse my plastic bags. You can't reuse a paper bag. I do dislike the tendency to double bag things that don't need double bagged. Today I bought a half bottle of wine and it got tripple bagged. Where I come from in Scotland, it's not uncommon to see people take the shopping trolly home with them. Certainly saves on the bags.

[Senzhi]

Good to see such small but important and encouraging changes.

However, could it not be this is only local and temporary, so to give a good impression and keep face? We all know what's coming soon, don't we?

[Quest]

yeah, cos they decompose and/or can be recycled.

I wonder whether the disappearance of forests will kill us first, or the running out of garbage pits will kill us first....

[simonlaing]

Hi yonita,

Yes it is good to see. Here in Nanjing they are pulling over anyone without a license plate for their motor scooters. I think this is good. Though the only people who wear helmets riding bikes or scooters are the Pizza Delievery boys, professional mountain bikers and a couple of police.

I ride a bike and don't wear a helmet partly because they are hard to find and partly because I don't want people to laugh at me. I get enough of that with my little fold up bicycle. ,

Plus I have seen police patroling after 11 pm in the city center. (2 years ago that didn't happen much)

Have fun,

SimoN:)

[Luobot]

Are paper bags really better than plastic bags?

China says deforestation still a major environmental problem

“rampant tree cutting had been blamed for soil erosion and severe flooding along the Yangtze river.”

The good thing is that some sort of an effort to improve the environment is being made. But the switch to paper bags will hopefully evolve into something more environmentally friendly. Some organic stores in NYC have started giving a small discount (such as 5 cents) every time you return with their super strong store supplied plastic bag and make another purchase. This is a win-win for everyone. The store builds loyalty with return visits, you get a discount (small but popular, even though the store charges double to triple for organic produce), and the environment gets saved. Other organic shops are now making money selling attractive "organic" cloth bags that you can reuse (which, to be ironic, I'll guess are made in China).

So while I don’t think that the move to paper bags is the best solution, perhaps it’s a positive step in that it raises awareness for the environment, which can easily transfer into other more environmentally friendly solutions.

[Dani_man]

In Tsinghua university, before the entrance to the supermarket you can see a sign that ask you to be considerate and to reduce your use of plastic bags... just give up the bag if you can carry the stuff by yourself (when buying a drink or something).

Since then (actually...) everytime you say to the Fuwuyuan that you don't want a bag they 谢谢 you and make you feel better... :-)

[gougou]

Since then (actually...) everytime you say to the Fuwuyuan that you don't want a bag they 谢谢 you and make you feel better... :-)

That's nice! Most of the time I go to a shop and tell them I don't want a bag, they stare at me in disbelief.

Though now I do most of my shopping at makro, where they don't give out plastic bags (except for the reusable ones that you have to pay for). I now have trouble finding enough plastic bags to line the trash cans at home... (Luckily, I still get some when I go to the wet market. Yet another reason to eat more fruit!)

[cdn_in_bj]

Apparently, from yesterday onwards there would only be paper bags available.

I find this quite surprising given the high cost of paper compared to plastic.

Even better would be to encourage people to bring their own reusable bags (cloth, nylon, etc.), but I can see that being hard to do over here. The Ikea in BJ charges for their plastic bags, which does make customers think twice about if they really need a bag.

I guess some bureaucrat out there cares about drunk driving.

I heard that they toughened the rules/punishment for drunk driving (apparently lifetime license suspension), but these changes didn't seem to be reflected in my recent written driving test. But I have noticed that people in general are now taking drunk driving a lot more seriously (no more stories of driving home after drinking 3 or 4 beers), so it seems to be working.

I myself have not yet run across a breathalyser checks, though I did run into one of their "random inspections" a few months ago. Which should've been no big deal, but I did not have a proper license at the time so I was a bit nervous to say the least. Fortunately, the officer did not feel like waiting while I fumbled around to find my cdn license and he let me go after asking me if I had been drinking.

By the way, my "encounter" occurred while turning onto Dongdan from Changan. I've since noticed that this is a favourite spot of theirs, which makes sense as in order to turn onto Dongdan you need to go onto the side road ahead of the intersection, and by the time you see the police it is too late.

Now if only they could get people to wear their seatbelts...

[roddy]

A couple of things I noticed . . .

One is that queuing actually happens more than it used to. I've always thought the situation in Beijing is better than some make it out to be - people complaining about queue-jumping don't always realize that for that to happen there has to be a queue to jump in the first place - but in recent years I think things have got significantly better in queues for subway tickets, to get on the subway and on buses. How much of this is due to the enforcers they have I don't know, but it seems to me that even when there aren't any around people are better behaved and also more likely to self-regulate - ie if one person jumps a queue other people react not by doing the same but by yelling at him to get back where he belongs.

Mobile phone behavior is also improving, I think. It's all relative - I'm talking about people now having a conversation on their phone in the cinema in a semi-hushed voice rather than full volume, or taking the phone outside (where they might proceed to shout into it so we can all hear anyway.) But there's an awareness that they should be reducing the impact on others, even if they're still managing to do a fairly good job of ruining the movie. I've also seen the guards at exhibitions politely ask people to take their mobile phone conversations outside and be politely told 'oh yes, sorry, my bad', which didn't always happen.

Spitting again is improving, though it's relative. People often look for a gutter or bin to spit into now, rather than onto the pavement (love the way they never spit straight ahead into their path. Oh no, lets put this where someone else will walk.) But as I say I think that's getting less, and more considerately aimed.

[[欧阳江]]

Spitting again is improving, though it's relative.

Truly, I read on the bus the other day that the spitting ratio in Beijing is down 12,3% from last year. How that statistical data was gathered I don't know (nor do I want to) but obvious things are improving!

[Rincewind]

I can't say I've seen these changes here in the Northeast. People still spit. Queues do not exist. And in an elevator, you must wait for people to get on before you can get off.

WRT paper bags and the environment. Using paper won't cause deforestation because the paper industry uses softwoods not hardwoods. So it's the norther pine forests that are under threat from paper, not the southern forests. And then, the norther forests tend to be commercial plantations that are replanted after harvesting so that should balance.

However, recycling paper is a messy business and creates pollution. Seems you can't win at this game.

What might work is if there was a cash value to recycle the plastic bags. All my coke bottles and cardboard gets recycled as there is a decent amount of money to be made form this. If collecting used plastic bags could be made profitable then maybe they would be recycled better.

[Luobot]

Using paper won't cause deforestation

Great, except that ...

Because of increasing demand for paper, and improvements in pulp processing technology, almost any species of tree can now be harvested for paper.... The number of trees and other vegetation cut down in order to make paper is enormous. Paper companies insist that they plant as many new trees as they cut down. Environmentalists contend that the new growth trees, so much younger and smaller than what was removed, cannot replace the value of older trees.

That's progress for you.

[heifeng]

Signs of things changing: A clean restaurant experience?

You know what is a sign that things are changing, have any of you been to a restaurant and your dishes (plate, teacup, bowl, and class) are all 'sanitized' and shrinkwrapped in plastic lately. This has happened to me twice in the last 2 weeks. I'm always happy to receive sanitized plates and such, but what is not cool is that you get charged 1-2 yuan for your chopsticks and 1.5 for these sanitized plates...since when do restaurants get to pass the buck to the consumers...isn't it their responsibility to wash and sanitize their dishes anyway? Plus, all that plastic and wood and disposable stuff isn't environmentally friendly either....

[cdn_in_bj]

You know what is a sign that things are changing, have any of you been to a restaurant and your dishes (plate, teacup, bowl, and class) are all 'sanitized' and shrinkwrapped in plastic lately. This has happened to me twice in the last 2 weeks.

Yes! This happened to me last week. The girl said it was a result of some sort of new government policy having to do with the upcoming Olympics. The shrinkwrap had some writing on it, which led me to believe at the time that there was a 3rd party sanitation company involved, but that doesn't seem practically as they'd have to exchanged huge amounts of clean/dirty dishes on a daily basis. I think what they are really doing is just renting some shrinkwrap machines to make it look fancy.

Plus, all that plastic and wood and disposable stuff isn't environmentally friendly either....

In my case the chopsticks were part of the shrinkwrapped 'set' and not of the disposeable variety, making me question why I was being charged for such.

[roddy]

Oh, that would annoy me. The chopsticks you usually get the wet towel with which is actually useful so you can kind of justify that, but charging for the use of a clean plate? In a restaurant? What have we been eating off to date?

[gougou]

I got that yesterday as well. As all I had was some dumplings, I ate them straight off their plate - no need to have these dishes redisinfected and reshrinkwrapped. Makes me wonder, before you could always ask for throw-away chop sticks, so do they have throw-away plates now? Or can you pay less if you opt to eat from non-disinfected dishes?

[cdn_in_bj]

Or can you pay less if you opt to eat from non-disinfected dishes?

I guess you could try eating off the table, but they might charge you for the extra cleanup afterwards.