So I went to the local convenient store near my apartment around lunchtime yesterday to get my routine Diet Pepsi and bag of Chinese sunflower seeds (which I highly recommend as an alternative to any David fan out there). I decided to buy 4 bottles of Diet Pepsi, since they are so damn cheap, 35 cents each, especially since I could save myself a trip for at least the next day or two. So I had 4 bottles of soda and a large bag of sunflower seeds and after I paid the woman at the cash register, there was a moment of awkwardness. I was waiting for her to bag my shit up and she was just standing there. Finally she motioned to a small poster in front of the cash register. Surprisingly the poster had a small English description, below the super-size Chinese font above it. It read something like this:
Beginning June 1st, 2008, the Chinese government forbids the free distribution of plastic bags at stores. We encourage you to bring your own bag, or if you wish, you can purchase a plastic bag for 2 jiao [roughly 3 cents].
So there I am, with this decision to make, to buy or not to buy these bags that apparently are not good for the environment; who knew? Ok, so this may sound a bit harsh but here are my thoughts on this. I understand that this is a cause that has good intentions. I agree plastic bags are totally wasteful and I’m sure that countries around the world could be more logical and economical about distributing bags at stores and markets. Nobody can argue against that. But the issue I have is that this is just a frigging pain in the ass. 3 cents for a bag? That is supposed to convince me that I am going to become all environmental and carry around with me some eco-friendly grocery bag. No, its just an attempt to fix a problem (the Chinese environmental problem) at a place other than the source.
So while a billion Chinese people are now inconvenienced by being asked every time you buy something whether or not you want to pay an additional 3 cents for a bag, there are bustles and bustles of factories in cities throughout China with little to no pollution regulation, chemical regulation and even safety / worker regulations. These issues must play a more significant role in China’s environment crisis than average people getting a plastic bag at a supermarket. In my opinion, the decision to do this plays more into the government’s desire to appear more environmentally friendly than actually tackling environmental issues and confronting these corporate conglomerates that are unwilling to compromise. Plus, if you are going to institute a policy like this, why in the world would you make bags that costs 3 cents? Make them at least cost 50 cents or $1 and make me (and the rest of the Chinese people) think twice about carrying a bag to the grocery store.
Plus get this. Of course, free bags are not totally nonexistent in the store. If you are in the produce section, they have bags to put your fruits and vegetables in. Those bags are free, it would be completely illogical to charge for those. So my experience has been so far that if you go to the produce section and watch people take bags from the bag rolls, you’ll notice there is a pretty consistent frenzy of people taking more bags than they need, which kind of defeats the purpose of this entire eco-friendly policy.
So to be fair to everyone, this is my proposal. You continue this strict no free bags policy in all supermarkets but you lift it in all convenience stores. People are not buying so many things at convenient stores like 7-11 that its a huge problem for the environment. At supermarkets, you charge way too much for the normal plastic bags, say 50 cents to $1. Then you have a supermarket VIP card, something like the Safeway Club Card. You tell people that if you sign up for the card, you’ll get a really nice supermarket bag, so nice that its actually worthwhile to take with you to the supermarket. I think if this was free, at least the first time, and the quality of the bag was actually so nice that it would not break after only two or three times of use, people would definitely be more inclined to participate. In addition, the supermarkets should be able to afford giving away these free bags because they are still making money from the select few who are buying the regular plastic bags. It’s a win-win situation for everyone, and most of all, it avoids me having to pay a stupid 3 cent fee to buy a bag for my 4 Diet Pepi’s and the Chinese sunflower seeds. Could a no free bags policy ever be instituted in the US?
Actually numerous US cities have already instituted no plastic bag policies (Oakland and SF to name two) and some cities (NYC and LA) have instituted policies where supermarkets must have a program for reclycing plastic bags.Details on the policies vary but I think some are similar to the China policy (although they clearly charge more than 3 cents)
I had the same experience today. I went to Walmat today and unwillingly spent 6 jiao for two plastic bags which are definitely overcharged . but I had no choice since there were so many things to carry home. The supermarkets should have provided the customers with more options , like durable bags with normal price , thus people know that durable bags are encouraged to be taken with next time when you go there.
Whole foods sells their green eco bags for 1.99…I think the main problem is that people usually go to the store on their way to-and-from other places. Maybe 10% of the time I’ll leave the house specifically to go to the store, and 5% of those times I remember to bring the eco bag.
I’m not really sure if I would be happy with an all out ban of plastic bags either. That would mean I would start having to buy trash-can liners for all my trash cans…
I suppose if they made the bags .5 - 1 dollar, and I forgot my own bag, there would be a limit to how much I could buy at the store. I’m definitely not buying many (if any) of the disposable ones, and I wouldn’t buy extra eco-bags because I already own one. So I’d be limited to a certain amount of groceries…. Which screws the whole point of shopping carts/baskets (which is -buy as much as possible). I wonder how much $$ they’d lose.
I personally hope that the no-free bag policy is instituted in the United States. Many people don’t understand the huge problems plastic bags cause for the ocean. There is currently a patch twice the size of Texas in the Pacific ocean of floating plastic. While this patch isn’t an island, it is a toxic soup of plastic polymers that blocks plankton photosynthesis and creates a deadly mix for any sea animal.
However, I completely agree that the Chinese government is being highly hypocritical. Plastic bags are a problem, but the amount of energy derived from coal in China is staggering. The plastic bag initiative is a step forward, but there are many other environmental problems that need to be addressed.
In our Safeway they sell cloth bags for 99 cents. Will send one to you
when your parents come there. I should start using them too but
they haven,t made it mandetary yet so I still use the plastic ones.
Really get such a kick out of your description of things in China. Hope
J.J. isn,t offended.
Gdaka
I’ve gotta disagree. I love this policy and think it should be implemented world-wide (ASAP). Grocery stores should also be charging for the produce bags IMO.
There’s a huge difference between as many bags as people want for free and as many bags as people want for three cents. That three cents per bag will give people a feeling that they are wasting money- even if the amount is tiny. That three cents per bag for produce would make people think twice before needlessly bagging their onions and bananas.
It drives me crazy when checkers automatically go for the bags when I’m buying a single carton of milk.
Its a huge problem in San Diego: Here, we have recycling bins separate from our trash bins. This is nice, but these types of plastic bags are not recycled by the city. Problem is, most people don’t know you can’t recycle grocery bags so they throw them in anyways. This causes the city has to have to sort them out of the good recycling and throw them into the trash manually. This makes our recycling department that much less effective AND trashes that many good grocery bags that could have been recycled had they been brought back to the store.
I agree about China having bigger problems… but they have to start somewhere.
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Many grocery bags nowadays ARE biodegradable, although they look like plastic. Here’s a nifty way to convert these grocery bags into trash bags. It’s easy to do, convenient to use, and earth-friendly.