On Tuesday, China’s State Council announced a countrywide ban on plastic shopping bags beginning June 1.
Anyone who sells, makes or distributes the thin plastic bags, which are notorious polluters because of how long they take to decompose, will be fined or have their goods and profits seized.
China’s decision comes on the heels of San Francisco’s decision last March to ban non-recyclable plastic bags. Leaf Rapids, Man. has also jumped on board, and countries such as South Africa have placed extra taxes on plastic bags to discourage their use.
Although China’s decision is commendable, it’s only as good as its implementation strategy. Uganda banned thin plastic bags in October, 2007, but the bags’ sales continue. This demonstrates the potential ineffectiveness of such a policy, especially in a country such as China, which demonstrated its spotty record in manufacturing oversight with this summer’s spate of product recalls. It would be disappointing if China made this policy a token gesture without a concrete follow-through plan.
But the onus to reduce pollution doesn’t lie on solely on consumers, which is what policies like this suggest. It’s time to start holding industries able for their energy consumption. If the West wants to point fingers at countries such as China, perhaps we should stop consuming goods produced in those countries and residually benefiting from low costs associated with cheap labour and a disregard for the environment.
The time has long ed for Canada and the United States to stop hiding behind the environmental failures of countries such as China. We hope small policy changes like China’s will lead to larger commitments from countries with greater capacity for change, but that might be a waste of our energy.
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