Chinese plastic bag ban starts

30 May 2008, 5:12pm

A Chinese ban on single-use plastic carrier bags, which will cut plastic bag usage by 60%, came into force on Sunday (1 June).

Banned: China uses three billion bags every day

The ban, revealed by Packaging News in January, will prohibit the production, sale and use of "ultra-thin" bags less than 0.025mm thick, but shops will still be able to sell thicker 'reusable' bags.

Dong Jinshi, vice chairman of the China Plastics Proscessing Industry Association's (CPPIA) waste plastics recycling committee, said the ban was aimed at changing people's habits.

The CPPIA estimates China uses three billion bags every day. UK retailers, in comparison, give out eight billion plastic and paper bags each year.

China's largest plastic bag manufacturer, Huaquiang, closed as a direct result of the ban. The firm, which had 20,000 staff, produced 250,000 tonnes of bags a year and was worth CNY2.2bn (£150m), shut its doors on 18 January, ten days after the ban was announced.

David Tyson, chief executive of the Packaging and Films Association, has previously suggested that the decision to ban plastic bags was an attempt to improve China's environmental image ahead of the Olympic Games in August.

A quarter of the UK's plastic bags come from China and a further 40% from Indonesia.