Ten Years of Plastic Banning

Beside the trash can of Mr. Zhou's home, there is a large plastic bag all year round, which is filled with plastic bags from supermarkets, fruit shops, and vegetable markets, "for garbage."

Since 2008, the habit of more than ten years has changed. "Supermarkets no longer provide plastic bags for free, and there are fewer bags at home." There are fewer free plastic bags, but Mr. Zhou's small plastic bags are still there. But slowly, there are more environmentally friendly bags at home.

This is the change in the home of an ordinary citizen in Hangzhou ten years after the plastic ban was issued.

On June 1, 2008, the plastic ban came into effect. The production, sale, and use of plastic shopping bags with a thickness of less than 0.025 mm were prohibited in China. Since then, all supermarkets, shopping malls, bazaars and other commodity retail places have implemented a paid use system for plastic shopping bags, and no plastic shopping bags are allowed to be provided free of charge. Ten years. Qianbao reporters visited and found that supermarkets and shopping malls strictly enforce the regulations, but some vegetable markets and roadside shops still provide plastic bags for free. With the rise of takeout and express delivery industries, the use of plastic bags has also increased.

Supermarkets strictly enforce, vegetable markets use them for free

"Do you want a bag?" The supermarket cashier will ask when checking out.

"Yes." The customer answered. No one asked about the price.

"It has always been 30 cents each." A customer said.

In the supermarket, many people, especially elderly customers, are used to bringing their own shopping bags. And the young man Xiao Zhao is paying, "I don't have the habit of bringing a bag, anyway, it's not expensive, so I'll buy one." - Data shows that from June 2008 to 2016, when the plastic ban was implemented, the use of plastic bags in Chinese shopping malls and supermarkets generally decreased by more than two-thirds, and a cumulative reduction of about 1.4 million tons of plastic shopping bags.

In the evening, at the Pingfeng Street Farmers' Market in Hangzhou, most of the citizens who came to buy vegetables did not carry bags in their hands. "Everyone buys vegetables in plastic bags." The reporter asked a citizen at random. Sister Zhang at the vegetable stall was sorting vegetables. She told the reporter that she bought the plastic bags herself. "In the past, we were required to use environmentally friendly bags, but there has been no such requirement in the past two years." She pointed to the white plastic bags and said that a large plastic bag of more than one kilogram costs 15 yuan, and a small one costs 10 yuan. There are people selling them every day, and she buys them when she runs out. It's very convenient.

In the Luojiazhuang Farmers' Market in the west of the city, the situation is a little different. "The bags are purchased uniformly by the market. We buy environmentally friendly and degradable bags from the market. 24 yuan for a lot of them, this price is acceptable to us." A stall owner said.

At the seafood stalls in various markets, the reporter noticed that everyone generally used a batch of green plastic bags. The lady boss said frankly: "For fish and shrimp, those (environmentally friendly plastic bags) are not thick enough and are easy to puncture and leak. They are not as good as these."

Takeout express delivery has become a new major user of plastic bags

Data show that from 2008 to 2016, the plastic shopping bags used in major commodity retail outlets in China saved a total of about 70 billion, or about 8.75 billion per year. However, the increasing number of express packaging and takeout boxes has become a new problem.

According to statistics, in 2016, China's express delivery industry consumed about 14.7 billion plastic bags, and China's three major food delivery platforms consumed at least 7.3 billion plastic packaging per year - the total number far exceeds the plastic shopping bags saved each year.

There are many express delivery companies in the Pingfeng Street area of Zhonghe North Road in Hangzhou, and the reporter randomly visited several of them. A person in charge of Best Express said that most of the bags they use are environmentally friendly plastic bags, but "if the other party sends them, I don't know if they are environmentally friendly."

A courier from Shentong uses 50-100 packaging bags every day. "The bosses of each outlet are different. Some may use the company's environmentally friendly bags, while others may buy plastic bags on their own." At SF Express, the plastic packaging bags the reporter saw were relatively uniform, with recyclable logos printed on them.

In addition to express delivery, takeout is also an uncontrolled area. The reporter interviewed a takeout platform, and the relevant person in charge said that they recommend that merchants use recyclable or degradable plastic products, but they have no right to force them.

The new version of the plastic restriction order is being revised and improved.

Since the release of the plastic restriction order, everyone's intuitive feeling is that its effect is being weakened. Sun Yi, deputy captain of the Hangzhou Environmental Protection Volunteer Service Corps, said that plastic waste accounts for a large proportion of domestic waste, but talking about a complete ban is not an ideal solution. "We have been advocating that everyone use less plastic bags every day. I usually use one plastic bag for seven or eight days. But even I can't do without plastic bags now."

In life, most people don't care where the plastic bags end up. "It's hard to make a hard requirement." Sun Yi said that he hopes everyone will look at plastic bags from the perspective of caring about their own health and environmental quality. "If each of us can take the initiative to use less, even if it's just one less, will the situation be better?"

The relevant person in charge of the Resources and Environment Department of the Hangzhou Development and Reform Commission said that the plastic restriction order has been in place for ten years. At that time, it was required to prohibit the use of plastic shopping bags with a thickness of less than 0.025 mm in the production and sales fields. Now, these ultra-thin plastic bags are really hard to see - from this perspective, the plastic restriction order has certain positive significance. Over the past ten years, with the development and changes of society, takeout and express delivery have become "gathering areas" for plastic bags. At present, the national level has noticed this problem and will put the study and improvement of the plastic restriction policy and regulatory system on the agenda. However, starting with policies alone cannot solve the fundamental problem. Citizens also need to cultivate environmental awareness from themselves and consciously reduce the use of plastic products.

Plastic Industry Video