The General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Notice on Restricting the Use of Plastic Shopping Bags for Production and Sales", prohibiting the production, sale, and use of ultra-thin plastic shopping bags, and implementing the system of paid use of plastic shopping bags. Moreover, since June 1, 2008, the system of paid use of plastic shopping bags has been implemented in all supermarkets, shopping malls, bazaars, and other retail stores, and plastic shopping bags must not be provided free of charge.
Read this notice carefully, in fact, contains two layers of core meaning: First, the prohibition of the production of ultra-thin plastic bags, of course, there can be no so-called sales and use of the problem; the second is the use of non-ultra-thin plastic bag compensation system. However, this "limited plastic order" can have much effect in the end, but it is worth pondering the government and the public.
Let's look at the first level. The ban on the production of ultra-thin plastic bags poses at least two problems. First, a large number of related manufacturers either close down or transition. The resulting unemployment shock cannot be overlooked; the second is how to choose a substitute for ultra-thin plastic bags. The "cloth bag" is certainly a choice. However, this practice does not seem to be going well. For example, Carrefour, Wal-Mart and other well-known companies have presented customers with environmentally-friendly shopping bags at different times and appealed to customers to consciously reduce the use of plastic bags. However, they are often engaged in environmental protection activities and are almost always in the store after the event. The figure of a shopping bag cannot be seen; "paper bag" is also an option. But to remind everyone that the "paper bag" is made of wood, it is easy to recover and degrade, but for a country with such a serious lack of forest resources, I am afraid it is not a "luxury goods" that cannot be consumed; "food basket" seems to be Is the best choice. However, for the majority of office workers, when they go to work, they can't always go to work with food baskets. The convenience of consumers should be a top priority for the business. If the state enforces it, it is feared that it will inevitably fall into the “consider the other side†in terms of environmental protection and convenience.
Let's take a look at paid non-thin plastic bags. There are even more "hidden tricks" hidden here. The cost of plastic bags as a business has long since been passed on to consumers, and there has never been a "free" one. What worries people is that now the state has forced the use of plastic shopping bags for paid use. Is it not to raise the price for merchants to find out the truth, thereby increasing consumer shopping costs and increasing the burden on the people?
Moreover, the threshold for the production of biodegradable green plastic bags is high. According to the standards put forward by the six departments, relevant manufacturers must obtain the effective qualifications of the China Environmental Labeling Certification Committee's “China Environmental Labeling and Biodegradation†product certification. The product quality meets national and industry standards or requirements, and is non-toxic, harmless, and biodegradable. Physical performance testing qualified. The ultrathin plastic bag called "white pollution" has a very low production threshold. At present, most of the domestic enterprises that produce plastic bags are workshop-style. There is a blown film machine or bag making machine. A little polyethylene material or some waste recycling materials can blow plastic bags. Of course, the price of eco-friendly plastic bags is more than double the price of ultra-thin plastic bags. In times of rising commodity prices, how can consumers not worry about policy-backed price increases? In addition, it can be concluded that with the "plastic limit order" as the "amulet," the relevant certification department's business estimates have to "rise in height", and naturally become the authority to grasp the relevant manufacturers "birth and death".
For the reasons for using the "plastic limit order", many people without exception, carried out the magic of "international general rules." Such as the United States, San Francisco, Australia and even India, Maharashtra, Tanzania, Zanzibar and so on. However, there are probably reasons for the existence of plastic products. Relevant experts pointed out that if other materials are used instead of plastics, it may cause more damage to the environment. Therefore, for the attitude of plastic bags, we need more "sparse" than "blocking."
This also contains two layers of meaning. One is to increase the recycling of plastic products. China's waste plastic recycling rate is only 10%, which is much lower than that of the developed countries. The second category is waste sorting packaging. In developed countries, waste separation packaging is an important means to increase the recycling rate of waste plastics, and many countries even have legislation to enforce this. In contrast, in China, the vast majority of waste sorting processes are famous and not real. This is also one of the main reasons for the low recycling rate of plastic waste in China.
More importantly, raising public awareness of environmental protection is the fundamental way to reduce the pollution of plastic waste. According to the author's latest research, public awareness of environmental protection determines its environmental behavior. If we can make more efforts to raise public awareness of environmental protection, carrying out a "vegetable basket" to buy food will become public conscious behavior. On the contrary, if the public’s awareness of environmental protection is still very low, “constraints on plastics†may be the same as the “disposable chopsticks†in the past, and they fall into the embarrassing situation of “thunder and rainâ€.