Starting in June, all shops will be forbidden from offering free plastic bags. Meanwhile, super-thin bags have been banned. Consumers are being asked to "go back to" using cloth bags and baskets. Meanwhile, Tibet's provincial government announced that it intends to ban all plastic bags period.
By targeting those pesky bags, China joins a growing club that includes Ireland, Uganda, South Africa, Russia, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. With the right enforcement -- that's always the tricky part -- and education campaigns, the upshot in China could be huge: China Trade News estimates that the country of 1.3 billion people must refine 5 million tons, or 37 million barrels, of crude oil every year to meet demand for plastic bags, which are used at a rate of 3 billion bags every day. Three billion. If that estimate is right, that means China uses as many bags in two weeks as the U.S. uses in a year--or that would mean that each Chinese citizen uses twice the amount of bags Americans use every day.
By targeting those pesky bags, China joins a growing club that includes Ireland, Uganda, South Africa, Russia, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. With the right enforcement -- that's always the tricky part -- and education campaigns, the upshot in China could be huge: China Trade News estimates that the country of 1.3 billion people must refine 5 million tons, or 37 million barrels, of crude oil every year to meet demand for plastic bags, which are used at a rate of 3 billion bags every day. Three billion. If that estimate is right, that means China uses as many bags in two weeks as the U.S. uses in a year--or that would mean that each Chinese citizen uses twice the amount of bags Americans use every day.
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