China Bans Plastic Bags in Time for 2008 Olympics
Our country consumes huge amounts of plastic bags every year. While providing convenience to consumers, they have also caused serious pollution, and waste of energy and resources, because of excessive use and inadequate recycling.
So reads the Chinese central government’s website, according to a Reuters news release. As of June 1,the production of ultra thin plastic bags (i.e. grocery bags) will be stopped and handing out plastic bags with purchases will be banned.
Apparently, 3 billion bags are used every day in China. Following the calculation I made here outlining the volume of plastic used by the Greater Vancouver Regional District, and given the 67 days between June 1 and the starting date of the Beijing Olympics (August 6), China will be responsible for saving approximately 58 Olympic Sized swimming pools of plastic.
When you’re this big, they call you mister.
Here are a few other plastic-bag related snippets on Terry:
- Paper, Plastic, or Neither? An Olympic Terry Challenge
- Visual Number Crunching: A Graphic Look at What We Waste
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle or Chuck it in the Garbage – Do We Really Know Which is Best?
