The Truth About Plastic Bags and Their Impact on Environment

Reduction of carbon emissions and tackling global warming is currently one of the most important issues the humanity has to face. Some countries started taking drastic steps to lower their level of greenhouse gas emissions. Up till now the most polluting country is the United States, despite the numerous actions and billions of dollars the country invests to decrease its level of emissions. At the same time the fastest developing country in the world, People\'s Republic of China, is blamed for continuously increasing the level of atmospheric pollution. With a great pace in the development of different industries, the country\'s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions significantly increased over the past few years. China\'s government decided to take important steps to tackle the problem and one of the important steps was the strict limitation of ultra-thin plastic bags.



Over the last year China managed to considerably reduce the pollution level, saving 40 million plastic bags. Usually plastic bags can be found on country\'s beaches, waterways and at unofficial dumping sites located throughout the country. The term that was applied to the litter consisting from plastic remains is \"white pollution\". In January 2008, the country\'s parliament, the State Council, has forbidden supermarkets, shops and sales outlets to provide free plastic bags with a thickness less than 0.025 millimeters. In addition, shop keepers and vendors were also warned by the State Administration of Industry and Commerce. In case they are caught with distributing free plastic bags, they will face a fine of 10,000 yuan, which is around $1,465.



The latest review issued earlier this month by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), showed that supermarkets reduced the level of free plastic bags by 66 percent shortly after the policy was announced last June. After the prohibition was applied, the country managed to save 1.6 million tons of petroleum, according to the estimations carried out by the NDRC. Note that before the government imposed the ban, each day about 3 billion plastic bags were used throughout the country, which in its turn generated over 3 billion tons of garbage per year. Annually the country consumes 5 million tons of crude oil in order to produce plastic packaging.



The results of the ban were also analyzed by the China Chain Store and Franchise Association. Earlier this month, the organization stated that both foreign and local-owned supermarkets lowered the usage of plastic bags by 80 and 60 percent respectively. \"Supermarket consumers are used to bringing along shopping bags and reusing plastic bags. The awareness of environment is enhanced,\" said the association in a statement. It also mentioned that the reduced level of plastic bags did not have any serious impact on the sales in supermarkets. However, not everybody agrees with the ban. The environmental group called Global Village, with headquarters in Beijing, found that over 80 percent of retail outlets located in China\'s rural areas, carried on providing free plastic bags, despite the government ban. The group\'s survey also discovered that about 96 percent of all open food markets across the capital of China continued giving away plastic bags free of charge. Besides, the government\'s policy does not take into consideration plastic packaging that is usually used for raw meat and noodles for hygiene and protection reasons.



After China\'s commerce administration implemented the ban, 600,000 regulators inspected nearly 250,000 retails stores throughout the country. They managed to gather 2 million yuan of fines ($293,000). The ban of plastic bags in China is not a single case of government prohibiting or limiting their use. In recent year, a number of countries have already implemented plastic bag limits. For example, back in 2000 in Mumbai, India, officials prohibited stores and markets to provide free plastic bags in order to cut down the continuously increasing amounts of garbage the had been coming from storm drains during the season of heavy rains. Since then the same strategy was chosen by such countries as Australia, Ireland, Italy, South Africa and several cities in the United States. Probably the most severe punishment for providing plastic bags free of charge is in Tanzania, where the violator is sentenced for six months in jail and has to pay a fine of 1.5 million shilling, ($1,170).



The Danger of Plastic Debris



Usually it takes a hundred years for plastic remains to decompose and decompose into smaller pieces. Surely, the time of decomposition varies depending on the type of plastic used in a bag. Currently the Pacific Ocean features such a large amount of plastic debris that their overall size could reach the size of France and their weight equals about 3 million tons. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) says that plastic remains are quite often digested by wild animals. Each year one million seabirds face death. According to the agency\'s report, presented earlier this month, plastic garbage, including plastic bags and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles represent about 80 percent of all garbage found in the waters of our planet.



Achim Steiner, who currently holds the position of UNEP Executive Director, has suggested that all countries prohibit the use of thin plastic bags. \"Some of the litter, like thin-film single-use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased-out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere,\" he mentioned in a statement.



In addition to littering the water, plastic debris can cause serious damage to boats, fishing gear, as well as agricultural facilities. It is important to steadily remove plastic bags at the source, which would be much cheaper that later using machines to remove the garbage caused by plastic debris.