2 years ago, China's State Council putted a nationwide ban on plastic bags. China demanded all stores (from major supermarkets to small shops) go plastic bag-free. China called on consumers to use baskets and cloth sacks instead to reduce environmental pollution. Meanwhile, the production, sale and use of ultra-thin plastic bags - those less than 0.025 millimeters, or 0.00098 inches, thick - were also banned.

Excessive usage of plastic bags caused a serious waste of energy and resources and environmental pollution. It was predicted that China's Plastic Bag Ban would Save 37 Million Barrels of Oil.
White environmental pollution caused by plastic bags:


Now how do this ban execute in China? Plastic bags, which have caused serious environmental pollution in China, have disapeared? Or not?

The usage of plastic bags in major supermarkets in China indeed reduced dramatically. Now only 1/3 amounts of plastic bags are used in these supermarkets in China each year. It looks a real success in China for prohibiting plastic bags.

But the things always are worse than we expected originally.

In some rurual areas, in some markets (not supermarkets), even in some small shops, plastic bags are widely used, free to the consumers. And in the big cities, such as beijing, shanghai, shenzhen, this happens! Free plastic bags often exist in many markets, which is the main source of vegetables and meets.

And the factories, which produce plastic bags, now still produce the ultra-thin plastic bags. They say no ban of producing the ultra-thin plastic bags from the government.

White pollution,which is a reference to the color of many plastic bags, has still cluttered landfills. It's said that the more rigorous legislation to discourage plastic bag use will be putted in China.