Plastic Pollution Poses Problem

Following a worldwide trend of anti-plastic bag sentiment, Chinese consumers will soon be paying for more than just their groceries at the till

If you’re a Shanghai resident used to having your groceries packed into free plastic bags after doing the weekly shopping, things for you are about to change, and when the cashier at the check-out tells you the bags are extra, you’d better believe it.

From the beginning of 2004, the popular supermarket practice of giving shoppers free plastic shopping bags will come to an end in Shanghai and all bags will be charged for. According to an official from Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau (SEPB), the move, which has long been planned by related environmental protection authorities of Shanghai, is aimed to reduce environmental pollution caused by abandoned plastic bags. Meanwhile, the measure has been formally included in the city’s new three-year environmental protection plan for dealing with “solid waste”.

In the early days of China’s reform and opening-up to the outside world since the late 1970s, supermarkets in Guangdong Province and other coastal areas had a head start in providing free plastic shopping bags, setting the standard for good service. Retailers throughout the country successively followed suit. Today, the pollution resulting from plastic bags has become a big threat to urban environment. The daily use of free bags in supermarkets is tremendous in number. According to a related report, Lianhua and Hualian, the two major supermarkets in Shanghai, used 720,000 and 300,000 plastic shopping bags respectively each day. Most of them were reused as containers for household waste, with the rest thrown away, which led to pollution.

Currently, the payable plastic bags have drawn wide concerns from society. The main debates on this issue focus on: Should consumers pay for supermarket plastic bags? Can such a move really result in less pollution? And without relevant regulations and measures, will the charge for plastic bags become an indirect price rise controlled by retailers? The answers, as always in hotly contended issues, vary from one extreme to the other.

An Environmentally Friendly Move

Wu Ming (Expert with the Publicity and Education Center of Guangzhou Environmental Protection Bureau): The use of paid plastic shopping bags will help to enhance people’s environmental protection awareness because at present, these bags fail to be properly dealt with in an environmentally friendly way. In order to alleviate pollution problems in this regard, some people suggest using degradable plastic bags instead of the ordinary ones. But I doubt that the degradable bags can really work. Strictly speaking, China’s current degradable technology has yet realized the complete degradation process and the so-called “degradable” can only turn substances into granules, which may cause more harm than good to our environment for they can’t be decomposed at all.

If Guangzhou carries out the same policy at supermarkets, maybe customers will feel inconvenienced and be unwilling to accept it at first. But I believe that as the time passes, the policy will prove to be effective in terms of environmental protection.

He Yongqi (Consultant of China Market Society and Professor with Management School of Jinan University): When China first adopted its reform and opening-up policies, providing free plastic bags at supermarkets was a model of good service. However, the white pollution resulting from the over-use of plastic bags has become increasingly severe, forcing people to take environmental problems into consideration. Guangzhou should learn from Shanghai’s experiences for it marks social progress. Many developed countries have already taken similar measures.

Citizens probably will feel inconvenienced at first, but the change will allow them to think over how to make use of plastic shopping bags more efficiently. I am sure they will gradually get used to it. Meanwhile, the Guangzhou Municipal Government should make efforts to increase people’s environmental protection awareness by means of legislation or formulating related regulations.

Chao Bai (From Nanfang Daily): I firmly support the charging for plastic shopping bags. Those abandoned plastic bags not only pollute our environment, but also result in unnecessary waste.

Some customers believe that the manufacture of plastic bags should be stopped for the sake of a sound environment, and that’s the ultimate way to eliminate waste and pollution caused by these bags. Others insist that paper bags, which are good for the environment, should be offered to customers, since the free plastic shopping bags previously provided by supermarkets are harmful to people. Of course, the two kinds of viewpoints sound reasonable. However, given China’s current production level, plastic bags can’t be totally replaced by environmentally friendly products. Hence, in order to minimize the plastic bag-related pollution, providing payable plastic bags is the only choice for the time being. Those who say “no” to the paid plastic shopping bags just worry about their own interests.

Not Effective

Sun Chengbin (Xinhua News Agency Reporter): Starting from this year, supermarket shoppers in Shanghai are required to pay for their plastic shopping bags. It’s said that Shanghai carries out the policy for reducing garbage dumping, so as to improve the local eco-environment. It seems like a reasonable decision. However, can such a move really play a part in eliminating environmental pollution? It is hard to say.

Providing free plastic shopping bags to customers is a marketing strategy adopted by supermarkets to improve their services and attract more shoppers. Although supermarkets have to pay for the plastic bags, customers bring them far greater economic rewards in comparison to this cost. From this point of view, it is the supermarkets that have gained the hidden profits through offering free plastic bags while consumers only get shopping conveniences they should have had, and it’s obviously unfair that only consumers should shoulder the responsibility of environmental pollution caused by supermarket plastic bags.

In addition, the statement that charging for plastic shopping bags can help ease the shopping bags pollution dilemma is overly optimistic. My own observation shows that in most supermarkets, rather than being freely used by shoppers, plastic bags are offered by salespeople according to customers’ actual needs. Since the need for shopping bags do exist, charging for those bags is not so effective and it is impossible to resolve the current waste and pollution problems thoroughly. After all, with the improvement in people’s living standards, hoping people will bring their own shopping baskets to the supermarket has become unrealistic. Moreover, many employees usually go to the supermarket after work for convenience, how can they take what they need home without using the plastic shopping bags?

Nowadays, protecting the environment and controlling pollution has become quite necessary and imperative. Hence, a good study is needed to resolve this problem. People concerned have already pointed out that efforts should be made to deal with the problem by various means, which include promoting the application of degradable plastic bags, seeking environmentally friendly substitutes, and strengthening supermarkets’ management over free plastic bags. Those people who get used to charging consumers whenever interest-related problems occur, are suspicious of ignoring the public’s interests.

Nowadays, the government puts emphasis on giving priority to people’s rights and interests. Hence, when facing the issues of public concerns, relevant departments should firstly listen to the opinions from ordinary people and then make a comprehensive analysis about the advantages and disadvantages before they make final decisions.

Related Measures Needed

Xu Bing (From China Economic Times): From this year, all supermarkets in Shanghai will stop providing free plastic shopping bags. The new move aims to reduce the use of such bags and control environmental pollution.

From the economics point of view, doing so has its own scientific basis. However, science does not always mean justice. The market economy in China is also far from perfect. It’s clear that the plastic bags involved-environmental pollution should not only be attributed to consumers and supermarkets. It is true that people’s consumption habits of using plastic bags should take responsibility for environmental pollution to some extent. But we should notice that the forming of consumers’ consumption habits that are adverse to environmental protection has great relation to the overall policies in the area.

Facing fierce competition, supermarkets started to provide free plastic shopping bags, a practice that soon became a business strategy. Moreover, relevant government departments haven’t unified regulations in this regard. That is to say, the current environmental protection policies fail to forecast related environmental problems, lack relevant regulations and have loopholes, which directly result in the forming of consumers’ consumption habits. Of course, to a large degree, retailers are also victims of policy.

Given the situation, it is totally unfair if the government only requires environmental protection awareness and the sense of responsibility from consumers and supermarkets through the economic lever, while failing to concentrate on formulating related policies. Policy makers have no right to ask consumers to shoulder the consequences of policy loopholes.

Currently, using economic means to resolve economic development related problems has become popular among all circles, for it can bring instant results and has a scientific basis. In that case, charging fees becomes the instinctive reaction of many people to solve new problems.

Although related government departments have, more or less, mentioned that science and justice are two important factors to be taken into consideration in policy making, once there is a problem, they always tend to find solutions through sacrificing the interests of consumers, and the policy updating always lags behind.

People usually accept a policy for its justice, rather than its scientific foundation. Hence, consumers should remind related departments to work out practical measures on pollution control for the effective implementation of the existing policy.

Zhang Runhua (Secretary General of Tianjin Association of Environmental Protection Industry): The plastic shopping bags in supermarkets should be charged on a reasonable basis. Otherwise, environmental protection will become the supermarkets’ excuse for levying charges.

Meanwhile, where the money charged will go is of great concern. Currently, the highest price customers should pay for a plastic bag is 1 yuan, while the cost for most of these bags are between 0.1- 0.13 yuan. The sum will be rather huge once all supermarkets in Shanghai offer payable plastic bags. People can accept that the charged money goes to specific funds for environmental protection, but if the money is included into retailers’ operational costs, it is inappropriate.

In addition, related government departments should set unified price standards and strengthen supervision in this regard. Supermarkets should work out relevant rules to allow the reuse of plastic shopping bags.