The Plastic Bag Day

Tesco has 18 stores in Shanghai and I happen to be in one of them. Being in this place reminds me of Penang- which has every Monday declared a 'no-plastic-bag day' from July 1st 2009 onwards. On Mondays, in Penang, shopppers get charged RM0.20 per plastic bag if they don't bring their own bags. But the similarity in terms of plastic bags end here because in China, every day is a plastic bag day.

In China since June 2008, the usage of plastic bags less than 0.0025mm thick is banned nationwide. Thicker bags are still being produced and available but shoppers are required to pay for them at about the yuan-equivalent of 5 US cents. Bags under 0.0025mm, considered ultra-thin, are a bane to China's environment. The plastic bag ban hasn't made Shanghai's air better or anything close to it, but then again China uses 37 million barrels of oil a year to produce plastic bags. In May 2009 survey, there has been a 66% decrease in plastic bag usage since the ban. To think about the monstrous resource savings that has been achieved is just incredible.

Back over to Malaysia, can you think of anything progressive that's being done for the environment except for Penang's plastic bag inititiative, because I can't come up with any examples.