Switzerland: Rational use of plastic bags will never cause pollution.
It is not common in Switzerland not to provide customers with free shopping bags. Migro and Gopp, the two largest supermarket groups in Switzerland, still provide plastic bags free of charge. There are many other places where plastic bags are used. There are free plastic finger covers in the gas station for drivers to check the dipstick without hurting their hands; The free plastic bag next to the trash can is for the dog owner to clean up the dog feces in time; The fresh counter in the supermarket will repackage the goods in plastic bags; There is also a small bag with air holes next to the bread rack, which can be used for free. It can be said that plastic bags are still widely used in all aspects of Swiss social life.
But at the same time, we also found a phenomenon: in public places in Switzerland, we will never see a discarded plastic bag, not to mention plastic bags "flying all over the sky", hanging on trees and being swallowed by animals, which shows that there is no white pollution in Switzerland!
Reusable shopping bags is becoming popular.
Time: 2007- 10- 19 Source: China Renewable Resources Trading Network Label: Plastic Foreign Information Packaging Information
For about 100 years, plastic bags have brought great convenience to human society, but also brought environmental pollution. With the enhancement of people's awareness of environmental protection, the voice of saying "no" to plastic bags is getting stronger and stronger. Shopping bags that are beautiful, convenient and environmentally friendly are very popular in Britain, Japan and other places.
According to Japanese media reports, a shopping bag called "I am not a plastic bag" launched by British brand Ania Hindmarch is very popular in Japan. A shopping center in Tokyo recently announced that it will sell 500 such shopping bags by lottery, attracting 1.5 million people in two days. On some auction websites in Japan, the auction price of this shopping bag, which costs 2,000 yen (1 US dollars is about 1 17 yen), has soared by 10 times. Previously, this brand of shopping bags also attracted people to queue up to buy when they were sold in limited quantities in the UK. On the website of "E-Harbor" in the United States, the bid for this kind of shopping bag once reached 100 (1 pound is about $2).
Of course, not everyone can afford such an expensive shopping bag, but environmentalists have other ways to deal with plastic bags that pollute the environment: not long ago, the Singaporean government and businesses urged consumers to bring their own shopping bags or provide reusable reusable shopping bags for the latter, and consumers actively cooperated. Kenya's largest supermarket chain also provides customers with cloth bags. Since July 1 this year, the Ugandan government has banned the production and import of plastic bags with a thickness less than 30 microns, imposed heavy taxes on plastic bags with other thicknesses, and encouraged its residents to use banana leaves, a traditional material for packaging local goods.
Some local governments have also actively banned the use of plastic bags. In April 2007, the Canadian town of Livrapids began to implement a ban on plastic shopping bags, becoming the first town in Canada to introduce such a ban. Modbury, a small town in Devon, southwest England, has also banned the use of plastic bags since May this year. Customers in this town will get bags made of starch and naturally degradable, recyclable paper bags or reusable cotton bags in shopping places.
At the same time, researchers are also actively developing more environmentally friendly plastic bag substitutes, and various environmentally friendly packaging materials are expected to continue to enter people's lives.
In 2007, Kenya and Uganda announced almost at the same time that they would ban the production and import of "ultra-thin" plastic bags with a thickness less than 30 microns, and imposed a tariff of 1.20% on plastic bags with other thicknesses. So far, except Burundi, all five countries in East Africa have taken measures to restrict the use of plastic bags. South Africa, a southern African country, began to legislate to control plastic bag pollution as early as 2003.
Kenya's new regulations came into effect on June 15, 2007, while Uganda's regulations came into effect on July 1. Ugandan businessmen are also required to clean up illegal plastic bags before September 2007 10. Uganda's environment minister called on people to abide by the new regulations and take baskets to go shopping.
The governments of Kenya and Uganda said that the new regulations were introduced because "environmental problems are very serious and plastic bags are difficult to handle". The environmental damage caused by plastic bags in East Africa is mainly manifested in the following aspects: blocking urban sewage pipes, causing livestock to die by mistake, causing marine life to die by mistake, causing mosquitoes and flies to breed due to sewage accumulation, deteriorating soil quality, and damaging the appearance of the city. There is a strong demand in society to solve these problems. After the introduction of new regulations in two countries, they were opposed by plastic bag manufacturers. The reason is that it may lead to the closure of some production enterprises and increase the unemployed population. However, the promulgation and implementation of the new regulations have already played a role in chain supermarkets with large plastic bag consumers. Nakumatt, Kenya's largest supermarket chain, announced that it would first launch reusable shopping bags for free in all its 18 branches, and then charge them according to the cost. This supermarket has been providing customers with plastic bags free of charge, and the annual use of plastic bags exceeds 30 million.
In two other East African countries, Rwanda and Tanzania, banning the use of plastic bags has achieved some results. Especially in Rwanda, the production, use and production of plastic bags with a thickness below 100 micron were banned in 2005, and supermarkets were also prohibited from providing plastic bags to customers. It is reported that there are no plastic bags in supermarkets in Rwanda, and customers can spend money to buy bags made of plant fibers. Many customers have formed the habit of bringing their own shopping bags. Rwanda's ban on plastic bags is very strict, and some supermarkets have been ordered to close down because they ignored the regulations to provide plastic bags to customers. At the capital Kigali airport, passengers will be asked to give up using plastic bags and buy bags made of plant fibers. Before the implementation of the ban, Rwanda also organized large-scale plastic waste collection activities nationwide.
The ban on plastic bags in Tanzania is different from that in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. The use of plastic bags with a thickness between 30 and 65 microns is prohibited in Tanzania, on the grounds that plastic bags with a thickness less than 30 microns are easier to degrade, while plastic bags with a thickness greater than 65 microns are easier to reuse. It is understood that the ban in Tanzania has not played a significant role in reducing plastic waste, and plastic bags in supermarkets can still be taken at will.
South Africa took action long before the introduction of measures to control plastic bag pollution in East Africa. South Africa once suffered from the pollution of plastic bags, which were scattered along highways, branch fences and beach lawns with the wind, and were nicknamed "South Africa's new national flower". In May 2003, South Africa issued a law prohibiting the production and import of plastic bags with a thickness of less than 80 microns (later relaxed to less than 30 microns). Violators can be punished up to 65,438+million rand (65,438+0 rand equals 0/65,438+04 USD) or 65,438+00 years' imprisonment. Since then, the South African government has reached an agreement with employers and employees, and retailers will separate the cost of plastic bags from the price of goods.
In the past, customers always thought that the plastic bags provided by merchants were free. In fact, the price of the goods they buy should include the cost of plastic bags, whether they take plastic bags or not. Now, retailers in South Africa no longer provide plastic bags "for free", but clearly mark the price, and customers can choose to buy or not. After the government stipulated the thickness of plastic bags and retailers began to publicly charge for plastic bags, people no longer used plastic bags as luxuriously as before, and many people began to consciously reuse plastic bags. Since the implementation of the regulations for more than a year, the amount of plastic bags used in China has decreased by 60%, and "white pollution" has also been significantly reduced. In 2004, the South African government stipulated that for every 65,438+0 kg of plastic bags sold, the government should extract 2.65,438+03 rand from it and invest it in a mechanism involving the government, employers and employees, aiming at creating employment opportunities and providing vocational training.