Qiao Ximei is not surprised when told that shops would stop giving her free plastic bags to be stuffed with the things she buys from June 1.

The retired cashier has a reason for that: "People used to pay 1 jiao (1.4 US cents) for a plastic bag when I used to work as a cashier in the late 1970s. Besides, it's good for the environment. I can bring my cloth bag, otherwise I'll just buy one (plastic bag). One or two jiao for a bag is acceptable," she says.

The 56-year-old lives with her son in western Beijing, and spends about 2,000 yuan (US$274) a month on foodstuff and other daily necessities. Sitting in a beverage parlor near one of US supermarket Wal-Mart's outlets, Qiao watches people come and go. Observing people is one of her favorite pastimes. Outside many people are seen carrying more than one plastic bag with a yellow smiley face, just like the one lying on the table in front of her.

Chinese shoppers carry home 3 billion plastic bags (about 1 billion for food, the rest for consumer goods) from markets and retailers every day. The bags, a major source of "white pollution", end up in landfills and could take 200 years or more to break down. Worse still, they contaminate the soil and water, says the Waste Plastics Recycling Committee of China Plastics Processing Industry Association (CPPIA).

Thankfully, a government directive issued on January 8 will see a reduction in the use of such bags from June. A State Council circular posted on the central government website (www.gov.cn) prohibits the production, sale and use of ultra-thin bags, that is, anything below 0.025 mm thickness. The directive bars supermarkets and shops from giving out free plastic bags to customers. Each plastic bag has to be paid for by the customer, it says, although specific regulations for its use are still under discussion. The ban covers public transport and tourist destinations, too.

"Our country uses an astronomical number of plastic bags. Though they are convenient for consumers, they are a severe waste of resources and cause environmental pollution because they are used excessively and have a low rate of recycling," the circular says. The bags tear easily, so consumers tend to discard them quickly instead of re-using them. Recycling the bags is difficult and costly, and they are the main source of "white pollution", the State Council directive says.

The ban has evoked mixed reactions from the public, even though many of them recognize its environmental benefits. Some people are worried over the cost it would entail. Students seem concerned that paying for plastic bags would raise their living cost. A month ago, half of the students attending a campus forum at Renmin University opposed the idea of paid plastic bags in campus stores.

"I think (the ban) will help improve the environment. When I go shopping, I'd prefer carrying a cloth bag instead of buying a plastic one," says Jing Ruihong, a 46-year-old Beijing-based accountant.

"It'll cause inconvenience," says a middle-aged male shopper in the Wal-Mart store. "I won't buy a plastic bag. Instead, I'll carry a cloth bag with me. Many people reuse the plastic bags to carry garbage. The ban will force them to buy garbage bags."

A netizen who goes by the name of yz888666 says on a Shenzhen-based BBS: "What's the point of banning free plastic bags? The number of plastic bags used won't come down because people will have to buy garbage bags."

In November, two months before the national directive was issued, the booming southern city of Shenzhen announced it might order an end to free plastic bags, imposing fines of 5,000 (US$690) to 50,000 yuan (US$6,900) on retailers that didn't comply.

Large retailers such as Wal-Mart have been advocating the use of cloth bags since late 2007. The bags are priced at 3 yuan, which is well below their cost price of about 9 yuan, says a Wal-Mart spokeswoman Huang Li. The sale of cloth bags hasn't taken off because most customers still opt for the free plastic bags. That's precisely why, she says, the ban is welcome - because it's likely to make people use eco-friendly bags.

Detailed figures on the price of the bags used in the country are hard to get, but those given out by supermarkets, most of which are plastic, are worth about 5 billion yuan (US$690 million) a year, according to the China Chain Store & Franchise Association.

What real differences will the ban make? The ban will prompt consumers to change their habit, and perhaps make them return to the old practice of carrying their own cloth or jute bags, says Qiao. Consumers have gotten used to plastic bags after getting them free for more than decade.

A salesman of a Shanghai-based trading company says the ban could affect the sale of plastic bags, not just ultra-thin ones, and "orders of other types of plastic bags would probably drop because the industry will be hurt if people stop using plastic bags."

Figures from a 2006-07 report show plastic film, usually between 0.06 mm and 0.26 mm thick, is used mainly in the packaging and agricultural industries. The latter alone accounts for about 30 percent of all plastic films because farmers use them at random to protect crops.

So one thing the ban could do is reduce the country's dependence on imports of ethylene and cut the industry's raw material cost. Plastic bags are made from ethylene, a byproduct of oil, gas and coal. China's petrochemical industry is hard pressed to produce enough ethylene to meet the domestic demand. The annual output of conventional ethylene is expected to reach 14-18 million tons by 2010, against 8 million tons in 2005 and 10 million tons in 2006, Nanhai venture manager of Shell Chemicals Colin McKendrick has said.

"The limited use (of plastic bags) may reduce import of ethylene," says a spokesman for China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec), the country's largest refiner. But insiders are not sure whether it will make a real difference to the environment. Though plastic bag producers and trading firms are likely to suffer, the plastic industry as a whole would feel a slight impact only because the ultra-thin bags used by retailers comprise a small fraction of its output.

CPPIA deputy secretary-general Ma Zhanfeng says the group has proposed the 0.025-mm definition in order to minimize the impact on producers. "It's hard to predict to what extent ethylene sales at home will be affected," the Sinopec spokesman says.

The government has started taking steps to promote recycling, too, to reduce consumers' reliance on and industrial production of plastic bags. Environmental protection departments will have to step up waste recycling and establish technical criteria for collecting, delivering, storing and recycling plastic bags. Science and technology departments have to study ways to add value to used plastics. And financial authorities have to make greater use of taxes to control the use of plastic bags and promote recycling.

Vice Chairman of CCPIA's Waste Plastics Recycling Committee Dong Jinshi says the ban would reduce the use of plastic bags by more than 60 percent and raise the recycling rate of single-use plastic bags. But he wants the government to introduce substitutes for plastic bags, too.

Qiao sums it up nicely: "It's not a big deal for my family. We can use cloth bags. But it may be difficult for them (the authorities) to watch farmers' markets and small chain stores across the country."

What we earnestly need to save the environment is the determination of all - the consumer, the retailer, the farmer, the official and everybody else - not to use plastic bags, or use them as sparingly as possible.

(China Daily January 22, 2008)