China To Ban All Single-Use Plastics
China, one of the world’s largest consumer of plastics, just announced its plan to ban single-use plastics across the country.
The proposal, announced Sunday aims to reduce plastic waste that has become ubiquitous in Chinese cities, promote recycling and green packaging and curb their overflowing garbage dumps.
The policy will ban the production and sale of disposable plastic tableware and cotton swabs by the end of 2020. Production of household products containing microbeads will be banned by the end of 2020 and sales of such products will be banned two years after that.
Single-use and non-degradable plastic bags will be banned in major Chinese cities by the end of 2020 and across the country by 2022. In addition, single-use straws will be banned by the end of 2020.
By 2025 the proposal, which was introduced by both the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, would ban all single-use plastics across the country.
The phased approach will allow time for China to ramp up manufacturing of biodegradable and alternate products to replace single-use plastics.
The ban comes on the heels of China announcing that it’s mega-dump, the largest in the country is full 25 years ahead of schedule. The Jiangcungou landfill in Shaanxi Province is the size of 100 football fields and was built to receive 2,500 tonnes of waste per day. Instead, the landfill received 10,000 tonnes of waste per day.
While China is one of the largest waste producers in the world, the United States produces more waste per person than China.
Canada is the largest producer of waste in the world. It is estimated that each Canadian produces 36.1 metric tons (about 80,000 pounds) of waste per person per year. In total, Canada produces 1.33 billion metric tons of waste per year.
To date, there are three states in the United States that have banned single-use plastic bags. California was the first state to ban its use, followed by Hawaii then New York. The ban of single-use plastic bags in New York will go into effect in March of 2020.
While those are the current states that have banned single-use plastic bags, numerous cities and counties across the country have banned their use.
