China Environmental Law

I should have added a caveat to my discussion of the Circular yesterday. Although I don’t find this exception in the Circular itself, several media reports  (here and here) noted that:

The regulation does not apply to plastic packaging for the hygiene and safety of products such as food and cooked food.

and

In consideration of food safety and sanitation, bags which are used to pack food, such as raw meat and noodles, are still free.

Another report adds “frozen food” to the list.

Given the one articles reference to “free,” I assume this “exception” applies only to the requirement that plastic bags not be offered for free, and does not continue to permit the use of the banned “ultra-thin” bags.

This exception creates a big hole in the law, but it does address a practical reality. Most meat in China, for instance, is sold in small butcher shops where the meat is cut to specification or in fish markets where most of the product is still squirming. These purchases cry out for a plastic bag. I for one am not going to drop the blood-dripping pork ribs in my cloth bag. I guess we could return to butcher paper, but I don’t know how environmentally-friendly it is. Thus, in an area where no workable alternatives exist, “free” plastic bags may apparently still be offered.

The important issue becomes how much farther beyond meat purchases does this exception extend.  “Hygiene and safety” seem to be the key drivers, but that can cover a lot of territory.  Do you need a plastic bag to keep the slice of donggua (冬瓜) (a type of large white melon) “sanitary?” Maybe.  What about a whole eggplant? I don’t think so.

I must say if nothing else the new law has been a source of much merriment in the check out counters of the grocery and convenience stores of Shanghai. The normally zombie-like clerks at my local Lawson’s were highly animated yesterday. It was a great chance to lecture (hector?) the unsuspecting customer on the new regulation. Since most of this lecturing took place in Shanghainese, I couldn’t follow it, but many of the younger customers not wanting to lose face seemed to opt for purchasing a plastic bag rather than juggling their purchases in their arms. I was asked in Mandarin whether I wanted to purchase a bag, and they were duly impressed when I pulled out the free tote bag I got from the Mitsubishi stall at a recent trade show. Oh the clever foreigner; he came prepared! 

This morning at a Hualian Supermarket (not to be confused with. . . well yes, I think they do want you to confuse it with the Lianhua (Lotus) Supermarket), there were two customers ahead of me in line. The first pulled a tightly rolled up cloth bag from her pocket, and the second stuffed her purchases in the now bulging plastic bags she had gotten from a previous shopping stop that morning.  Yesterday when I passed this supermarket I had seen a customer emerging with her unbagged purchases clutched across her chest. Further down the street I ran into a customer who had scavenged a piece of discarded burlap to cart her purchases home.

At the meat, vegetable, fruit, and breakfast stalls, it was different story. There was no slow down in the pace of dispensation of plastic bags at these establishments and they did not appear to be charging for them.  Especially at the breakfast stalls, the bags seemed to be the traditional ultra-thin variety, but it’s hard to know by simple observation.

The same could be said for the farmers who vend their produce and fish from the back of their bicycles. No slow down in plastic bag consumption here, and given that they are already engaged a cat and mouse game with the local police (because I assume they are unlicensed vendors), compliance with the State Council’s latest environmental Circular can not be a top priority.

Preliminary conclusions: the established grocery stores and larger chain convenience stores are complying with the regulation. There may be some grumbling from customers, but I haven’t encountered any in my limited sampling. Store-front and bicycle vendors are not in compliance, and given that most of them sell fresh or “fast” food, there is an issue as to whether they are actually covered by the regulation.

What are you seeing?