07.10.08

To Bag or Not to Bag, That is the Olympic Question

Posted in Beijing, Olympics, Society at 5:22 pm by Benjamin Ross

I distinctly remember the first time I ever went shopping China. It was my second day in the country, and my students took me to the “Not Second Market” grocery store located near the university where I was teaching. I had only bought around 7 or 8 items, basic provisions such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo, and junk food to snack on in my dorm.

Across China shoppers are looking for reusable, non-plastic alternatives to carry their groceries.

As I paid for my groceries, somehow the clerk managed to use four plastic bags to wrap all eight of my items. The toothbrush and toothpaste were in their own bag. The snacks were separated into two bags. The 24-pack of toilet paper, which was already in plastic, was wrapped in another plastic bag. I began to notice a pattern. The plastic bag did not serve any necessary purpose. Groceries were to be wrapped in plastic, and that was the way things were done. I even recall several instances where I had bought individual items such as a can of soda or a pack of AA batteries, and they had been wrapped as well.

It isn’t hard to see how in a country with a population in excess 1.3 billion that this situation could easily create a global environmental hazard. And it did. Just across from my dormitory was a large dumpster where residents would dispose of their garbage. Every evening at 10 o’clock, the maintenance men would set the contents of the dumpster ablaze, invariably including hundreds of bags from the Not Second Market. Around 10:10 every night, the warm aroma of burning plastic would creep its way up to my fourth floor apartment en route to the stratosphere. This practice was common across China, especially in rural areas.

With China preparing for a “Green Olympics” clearly something needed to be done to curb the massive waste of plastic making its way into the atmosphere. Fortunately, action has been taken. Below is a sign posted in front of the shopping center near my Beijing apartment. Notices like these have been popping up all around China over the past month.

It reads:

Protecting the Environment Begins with Me
According to the country’s regulations, from June 1, 2008 onward, Beijing Hualian Market will no longer be able to provide free plastic bags. The (new) fee structure is shown below:

Thanks to our customers for your support and cooperation. Please use the environmentally safe bags. Thanks for your support.

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Contrary to several reports, China has not banned plastic bags. Rather, they have banned the practice of giving them away free of charge. And from my observations around Beijing (and from reports across China) the new regulation is being strictly enforced. The beauty of the new regulation is that it is not an actual moratorium on plastic wrapping, which would be too radical for just about any society, let alone China. Instead, it shifts the decision of whether or not to use plastic on to the shopper. Along with carefully worded slogans (i.e. Protecting the Environment Begins with Me) the subtle message is that individuals have a responsibility to protect the environment. In reality, the fees for plastic bags are not expensive, even by Chinese standards. But with the decision to bag or not to bag now resting on the consumer, along with pro-environmental propaqanda, more and more Chinese are forgoing on the plastic, opting instead to either use reusable bags or carry their items by hand. The real question however, will be whether or not the policy will continue to be strictly enforced after the Olympics have passed.

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