China saves 3 mln tons of oil with ban on free plastic bags

(RIA Novosti) - China has saved some 3 million metric tons of oil in the year since a ban was imposed on supermarkets giving customers free plastic bags, China's Global Times reported on Thursday.

China prohibited supermarkets from providing shoppers with free plastic bags on June 1, 2008, in order to fight "white pollution," a new term referring to the excessive use of plastic packaging.

The paper cited official statistics saying that carbon dioxide emissions had decreased by 9.6 million tons over the past year following the introduction of the ban. However, it noted that the ban's impact had been lessened by lax enforcement in rural areas.

Though producers of plastic bags are not happy with the ban over decreasing profits, regional authorities have moved ahead with the ban, designed to encourage the Chinese to switch to reusable bags.

Officials in southwest Yunnan Province also banned the production, sale and use of all forms of plastic bags in the province, the Global Times said. And authorities in Hangzhou, the capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, encouraged residents to use recyclable paper bags, woven bags and other alternatives.

Environmentalists also urged action to reduce all sorts of white pollution and public education on environmental protection, the newspaper said.

As part of a national plan to go green adopted two years ago, China also plans to lower its energy consumption per unit of GDP and use more extensively renewable energy by 2010.