2. "Gray Area" Affects the Effect of "Plastic Restriction"

In order to cooperate with the implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order", the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce jointly issued the "Management Measures for the Paid Use of Plastic Shopping Bags in Commodity Retail Places" in 2008, which formulated relevant punishment measures for behaviors such as providing plastic bags to consumers free of charge or in disguised form, but the actual effect is not satisfactory.

On the one hand, the difficulty of law enforcement departments in obtaining evidence and enforcing penalties is an important reason. Although market and quality supervision and management bureaus in many places often inspect plastic bag manufacturers and punish violations, some "black workshops" that illegally produce ultra-thin plastic bags without registration are very hidden, which brings great difficulties to source supervision. At the same time, the lack of continuity in law enforcement inspections in some places has led to many farmers' markets and individual merchants continuing to use ultra-thin plastic bags.

On the other hand, the "Plastic Restriction Order" itself has limitations, which has created many "gray areas". As fewer and fewer customers bring their own shopping bags, most customers will directly buy plastic bags for convenience, and supermarkets have become the biggest beneficiaries, making the "plastic ban" suspected of turning into a "plastic selling order".

In addition, the "plastic ban" does not clearly stipulate the use of plastic bags for express delivery, online or offline shopping in recent years, giving plastic bags the opportunity to continue to proliferate. "There are three key issues in express packaging: first, plastic bags, woven bags, and transparent tapes are non-degradable; second, there are toxic and hazardous substances; third, the green packaging standard identification and inspection and testing institutions are not sound. Express packaging is mostly recycled from secondary materials and has no value for re-production and remanufacturing after recycling. Most packaging, like other garbage, is directly landfilled or incinerated. Some express packaging with reuse value is contaminated and difficult to recycle from the massive amount of garbage." Zhu Lei, deputy director of the Qingdao Research Institute of Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, said.

At the same time, the high cost of biodegradable plastic bags and environmentally friendly shopping bags has limited their large-scale promotion. Generally speaking, the cost of biodegradable plastic bags is 2 to 3 times that of traditional plastic bags. At present, China's production of bio-based plastics and degradable plastics is only hundreds of thousands of tons, which is significantly different from the annual production of tens of millions of tons of traditional plastics.

Consumers are not well aware of the "plastic ban" or still have the subjective idea of saving trouble, which is also an important reason for the difficulty in implementing the "plastic ban". In a large chain supermarket near the Civil Aviation General Hospital, the reporter randomly interviewed 10 customers who were shopping, 9 of whom agreed that "plastic bags will cause white pollution", but only 2 brought their own plastic bags, and many customers said that "they often accept ultra-thin plastic bags provided free of charge by stores, take-outs, express delivery, etc."

Experts said that in the absence of low-cost environmentally friendly alternatives, it is difficult to achieve the environmental protection vision through high-cost abstract moral responsibilities.

3. The key to the implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order" is to implement it

At the joint meeting of the 30th session of the 12th National People's Congress Standing Committee held on November 2, He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that he was ready to study and adjust the "Plastic Restriction Order" with relevant departments, and to study and formulate relevant implementation plans to take the lead in restricting the use of a series of non-degradable plastic packaging in e-commerce, express delivery, takeout and other industries, and at the same time urge local governments, especially cities, to increase their implementation efforts. In addition, new materials will be promoted, and recyclable and degradable packaging materials with mature technology and relatively complete industrial foundation will be collected and screened, and promoted in areas and industries where conditions are ripe.

Ten departments including the State Post Bureau also jointly issued a document in early November to promote green packaging in the express delivery industry, proposing that by 2020, the proportion of degradable green packaging materials will be increased to 50%. This means that the "Plastic Restriction Order" will usher in a new period of implementation.

However, in order to effectively implement the increase, it is urgent for relevant departments to issue detailed rules to clarify the responsibilities and obligations of regulators, producers, sellers, consumers and other links, and change the current "plastic ban" with no implementation and lax enforcement. "Regulations without detailed rules are like a tiger without teeth. They look powerful, but in fact they are not very effective." Huang Liling, a lawyer at Beijing Zhongmian Law Firm, said.

On the one hand, we need to "block" and curb it from the source. Since the "plastic ban" was originally promoted by the government, it cannot be completely implemented by the merchants. Environmental protection, quality supervision, industry and commerce and other departments must take tough measures and implement them in the approval, monitoring and law enforcement of plastic bag production to prevent illegal products from entering the market.

From January 1, 2015, Jilin Province began to ban the production, sale and provision of disposable non-degradable plastic shopping bags and plastic tableware, becoming the first province in China to implement a comprehensive "plastic ban". At present, large supermarkets and shopping malls in Changchun have basically completed the replacement of traditional plastic bags with environmentally friendly plastic bags. Now that there is a feasible pilot, whether it is necessary to upgrade the "plastic restriction order" to a "plastic ban order" through legislation in China, and how to solve the problems of expensive substitutes and insufficient supervision, etc., need to be fully studied.

On the other hand, we need to "drain" and improve the whole chain system design of plastic bag sales, use and recycling. Through government subsidies, consumers who use environmentally friendly bags can be given certain rewards to encourage more people to develop the good habit of carrying "bags" with them. At the same time, we can refer to the experience of overseas countries and increase the price of plastic bags appropriately, so that everyone may stop "pulling bags".

In addition, most environmentally friendly bags as substitutes are expensive and bulky. If we can use new materials such as biodegradable materials to increase the "green content" of plastic bags, and make them affordable and portable, I believe many people will be happy to fulfill their environmental protection responsibilities.

The sharing model has proposed a new idea to solve this problem. During this year's "Double 11", reusable shared express boxes appeared, which not only met user needs, but also encouraged consumers to reduce the frequency of using plastic bags.

Of course, whether it is blocking or dredging, the most critical hurdle is the transformation of public environmental awareness. Taking Ireland, the most successful country in the world in "plastic restriction", as an example, in addition to raising the price of plastic bags by collecting taxes, Ireland also focuses on cultivating citizens' awareness in "plastic restriction". The government has long carried out publicity and education in schools and communities, and distributed environmental protection brochures and environmentally friendly shopping bags to consumers. Now the whole society in Ireland has formed an atmosphere of not accepting and not welcoming plastic bags.

"The core value of the "plastic restriction order" lies in conveying such a message to the whole society-resources have a price, and using resources requires costs." Experts said that only by guiding most consumers to form a sense of resource price and letting consumers "limit plastic" in their minds can people be encouraged to actively participate in "plastic restriction" and ultimately achieve the goal of protecting resources and protecting the environment.

Reporter Zhang Yiqi Peng Xunwen

Germany

Establish a plastic recycling system

Germany has established a complete plastic recycling system, which can recycle 99% of used plastic bags.

The relevant person in charge of the German Plastic Packaging and Film Association said that Germany's plastic bag recycling system can ensure that plastic bags are sorted for mechanical regeneration and energy recovery and will not remain in the environment.

In 2012, Germany used 6 billion plastic bags, equivalent to a total consumption of 86,000 tons, and the average annual consumption of 76 bags per person. The relevant person in charge of the German Packaging Market Research Association reported that the average annual per capita consumption of plastic bags in Europe is 198, and the consumption of plastic bags in Germany is less than half of that number.

Ireland

Imposing an environmental tax on plastic bags

In order to curb the use of plastic shopping bags and reduce white pollution, the Irish government began to levy an environmental tax on plastic shopping bags in 2002, and all the funds collected were handed over to the newly established environmental protection fund for environmental protection projects. Before the tax was levied, Irish shoppers used about 1.2 billion plastic bags each year. After the tax was levied in 2002, the Irish government collected $98.68 million in taxes in five years, and the use of shopping plastic bags decreased by 95%, with an average annual consumption of 21 bags per person, compared to 328 bags before the tax was levied.

South Korea

Exchange old shopping bags for new bags

Since February 1999, the South Korean government has implemented the "Law on Saving Resources and Promoting Resource Recycling". No matter how expensive the purchase is in the mall, the mall will not give away shopping bags. If the customer does not bring his own bag, he will have to spend 100 won to buy a paper bag or plastic bag. The store will take back these bags at the original price, and customers can also take the used old bags to the store or supermarket to exchange for new bags. Since the implementation of the shopping bag charging system in 1999, the use of plastic bags in South Korea has decreased by 60%.

Bangladesh

Violators will be sentenced

Bangladesh banned the use of plastic bags in March 2002. Before the ban was implemented, 9.5 million people in the capital Dhaka consumed 10 million plastic bags every day. After the ban was issued, all 315 plastic bag factories in China were closed, and the use of plastic bags was reduced by 90%. In Bangladesh, those who violate the law to import or sell plastic bags can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, and those who distribute plastic bags can be sentenced to 6 months in prison.

Britain

The "plastic-free movement" has long been on the rise

The United Kingdom is one of the first countries in Europe to ban the use of plastic bags. In January 2007, 33 district governments in London jointly passed a bill proposing to ban stores from providing plastic bags to shoppers for free. If consumers really need them, they must pay a 15-pence tax. The purpose of this bill is to encourage businesses and customers to use environmentally friendly shopping bags to reduce the source of white pollution. Since the bill was proposed, the "plastic-free movement" has gradually emerged in the UK. London has thus become the first major city in the world to ban plastic bags.

(Compiled by our reporter Han Weizheng)

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