China Bans Plastic Shopping Bags- Emma Graham-Harrison and Guo Shipeng

In a shocker of a policy announcement, Chinese leaders have proclaimed free provision of plastic shopping bags will be banned in throughout the country by June 1 of this year. Via the Toronto Star:

China uses too many of the bags and fails to dispose of them properly, wasting valuable oil and littering the country, China’s cabinet, the State Council, said in a notice.

“Our country consumes huge amounts of plastic bags every year. While providing convenience to consumers, they have also caused serious pollution, and waste of energy and resources, because of excessive use and inadequate recycling,” it said. [Full Text]

See also Megan Lane’s interesting editorial from last November, “In Defense of Plastic Bags” for the BBC, which, among other arguments, points out that plastic bags are easily re-usable (a common tradition in China.)

[Image: Plastic bags in use at a vegetable market in Shanghai, by Crazy Vida via Flickr]