China bans free plastic bags

[bamboo]

Have you seen them packing through your rubbish at the local collection depot?

This I have. There is rubbish picking down the road from where I live. They are mainly looking for reusable metals and paper. What I understand about landfills comes mainly from watching a documentary about rubbish collection shown on Phoenix TV(凤凰台)!Every year there seems to be more and more requirement for landfills.

I think this will contribute to (I mean reduce or detract from) the total amount of landfills needed to bury human garbage before full recycling can be introduced.

China is the most fully recycled place in the world.

@johnD This statement is truly baffling. Much of China's sewage water still goes into the Yangtse River untreated. The famous TaiWu (lake) suffers from green algae. All this information I get from 凤凰台。Are you some kind of recycling expert? Why not join one of the talk shows on this tv channel and share your expertise? Are you anywhere near Hong Kong?

[gougou]

Went to Subway today, bought some sandwiches to go.

"I'm sorry, we'll have to charge you 3 mao for the bag."

- "That won't be necessary, I can just put them in my bag."

- "Oh, then we'll give it to you for free" and proceeded to put my sandwiches into the plastic bag...

[skylee]

gougou, I don't understand. why did he/she do this?

in HK the shop assistant would just say "多謝支持環保" and then give you what you've bought.

and what did you do? if I were you I would lodge a complaint. I've complained about a similar thing to a McDonald's -> http://blossomingsky.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!CE0A89B492538653!803.entry

[gougou]

I took the bag, of course - hey, free plastic bag!　

It seems that many people don't believe me when I tell them I won't need a plastic bag. Happened at the market plenty of times before, and at the little shop downstairs as well. I guess this is some sort of cultural conditioning, the way they look at me when they're wondering why in the world I wouldn't want a plastic bag is pretty similar to the way I looked at Chinese people when I first got here wondering why in the world they wouldn't accept my tip.

[skylee]

The HK legislature has just passed a law banning free plastic bags. Report -> http://hk.news.yahoo.com/article/080710/4/7402.html

The ban is expected to be enforced from early 2009. After that a plastic shopping bag in a supermarket will cost you HKD 0.5.

[crazy-meiguoren]

I have a feeling that in the long run, one type of pollution will be traded for another. Six in one hand, half a dozen in the other. People will soon get used to buying bags, and it will become part of the shopping budget. The volume of bags will come back.

For a long time, some supermarkets in the US have offered a small reduction in your bill for using your own bag. I never took advantage of that, though. It was more thrifty to use them as garbage bags or any other need that may arise. I consider that to be a pretty good utilization of bags - at least they get other uses beyond taking groceries home. If you don't use them, some stores have recycling bins for plastic bags. At one time, the local Safeway had such bins, but I haven't paid any attention to see if they are still there.

As far as generating power (brought up earlier in this thread), I am all for finding alternatives. Multiple sources need to be utilized. One source cannot be a cure-all - if solar was to replace the existing power plants in the US, the number of panels required would be enough to cover the entire state of Massachussetts. Perhaps putting solar panels on individual properties (on rooftops, for example) might help relieve the burden on the power grid by being partially self-sufficient. Every option has its price - even wind plants have been known to knock off birds that have the misfortune of flying into the spinning blades. Personally, I think that a well-designed and well-maintained nuclear power plant could help quite a bit. As long as nothing goes wrong, nothing significant would be added to the background radiation that naturally exists. A coal burning plant puts more radiation into the air when the burning coal releases those carbon isotopes.

[crazy-meiguoren]

Add Seattle to list of stateside cities that is seeking to reduce plastic bag usage. They have approved a 20-cent per bag charge.

Here is the link to the story.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/372566_bags29.html

[889]

"Supermarket downstairs from me seems to still be using the thin plastic bags . . ."

Only bags less than 0.025 mm thick are outright prohibited. Have you got a micrometer handy?

http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2008-01/08/content_852879.htm

[bhchao]

I also hoard plastic bags in my kitchen cupboard. At the end of the month, instead of dumping them into the trash, I take the bags to a local supermarket and insert them into one of their recycling bins. The plastic bags are then sent to a plant where they are turned into benches for parks.

Multiple sources need to be utilized. One source cannot be a cure-all - if solar was to replace the existing power plants in the US, the number of panels required would be enough to cover the entire state of Massachussetts. Perhaps putting solar panels on individual properties (on rooftops, for example) might help relieve the burden on the power grid by being partially self-sufficient. Every option has its price - even wind plants have been known to knock off birds that have the misfortune of flying into the spinning blades. Personally, I think that a well-designed and well-maintained nuclear power plant could help quite a bit. As long as nothing goes wrong, nothing significant would be added to the background radiation that naturally exists. A coal burning plant puts more radiation into the air when the burning coal releases those carbon isotopes.

Yes, we need a combination of solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, and tidal power sources. The unappealing part of wind power is the intrusion into the natural landscape. I'm not concerned about birds being grinded into microbits. Personally I'd be more concerned about my property value going downward as a result of wind blades in my surrounding countryside.

[blueyankee445]

Its a good thing in many ways,and certainly a disadvantage in others.You can buy the

regular shopping grocery bags at varied prices,made of cloth,and you may have to buy

two,if you buy a lot,and also various sizes.You can run out of room. You will have a need

to have plastic bags at home,and you will have none.We shop at the Independents so we

still get plastic bags to take home,when we need them. This can be problem as also you

must leave some items in the lockers before entering the store.With your food bag,you

are able to just walk into the store and not check it at all,before entering.