Charging for Plastic Bags Cut Bag Consumption by Half in China

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101128194007.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2010) — Research from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) shows that people in China -- the number one consumers of plastic bags in the world -- reduced their consumption of plastic bags by half when stores were forced to charge consumers for the bags.

Use of plastic bags is a growing global environmental problem. As a result, the bags are becoming subject to various regulations in an increasing number of countries, with mixed results. An environmental-economic evaluation of the Chinese ordinance against free plastic bags from June 2008 shows that people in China -- the number one consumers of plastic bags in the world -- reduced their consumption of plastic bags by half when stores were forced to charge consumers for the bags.

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'A general reflection based on studies in several countries is that if a country wants to reduce the consumption of plastic bags in the long term, it seems like repeated public information campaigns on environmental problems linked to plastic bags are very important,' says He.

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As competition is fierce in China, many stores choose not to comply with the new ordinance. Haoran He says that four months after the implementation of the ordinance, 60 percent of all plastic bags were still given away at no charge.

'One alternative would be for the government to price the shopping bags, convert the fee to a tax and then use the revenues to finance various environmental measures,' says He.

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Ireland is a country that has been remarkably successful at reducing people's consumption of plastic bags. In 2002 the country implemented a plastic bag tax in combination with long-term informational campaigns. When the Irish consumers were forced to pay 1.50 SEK per bag, they reduced their consumption by an astonishing 90 percent. Since they eventually got used to the price and the consumption consequently went up again, the government increased the price to 2.20 SEK/bag after five years. This clever move made the consumption fall back to a very low level again. People in Ireland now use about 20 bags per year as compared to 330 bags per year when they were given away for free.

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