Photo:Arbele Egger, Creative Commons, Flickr
If you're interested in China and the environment, like me, you have been reading The New York Times' Chocking on Growth series.  It is an excellent set of articles on all of the major environmental problems the Chinese people and government are facing in the coming years and decades.  It is staggering, to say the least.  And for as long as I can recall, the government has been pretty unsuccessful in their efforts to combat environmental degradation.  Their environmental body, SEPA, has always had too few employees and too many problems to deal with, not to mention other power issues related both to central and provincial government.  Essentially, it was, and generally still is, toothless.

However, the Chinese government has been making baby steps toward responsibility.  Shutting down coal-fired generators, accruing funds to protect a saltwater lake, more stringent fuel economy standards.  And now this – "China is banning free plastic shopping bags and calling for a return to the cloth bags of old."  Although other places, such as Ireland, Taiwan, South Africa, and San Francisco have targeted plastic bags as part of their environmental efforts, China is far and away the largest country to attempt banning the omnipresent plastic bag.

There's more:

Under the new rules, businesses will be prohibited from manufacturing, selling or using bags less than 0.025 millimeters (0.00098 inches) thick, according to the order issued by the State Council, China's Cabinet. The council's orders constitute the highest level of administrative regulation and follow-through is carefully monitored.  More durable plastic bags still will be permitted for sale by markets and shops.  The regulation, dated Dec. 31 and posted on a government Web site Tuesday, called for 'a return to cloth bags and shopping baskets to reduce the use of plastic bags.'  It also urged waste collectors to step up recycling efforts to reduce the amount of bags burned or buried. Finance authorities were told to consider tax measures to discourage plastic bag production and sale.

Will wonders never cease?  Now Australia is following China's lead.  While I certainly have more than my fair share of complaints about the Chinese government, it is definitely making an effort, if only in rhetoric.  Somehow the US government can't even get that far these days.

For those particularly interested in China's environment, check out work by Elizabeth Economy, a leading expert on the subject.