Plastic bag usage and the policies: A case study of China

Reducing the usage of plastic bags has been a pressing task for governments around the world. In China, the government also makes extensive efforts to contrast the negative effects of plastic bag usage by issuing different laws and policies. Conducting an on-site counting of bags used by consumers, this study investigates the usage of plastic bags in China and evaluates the effectiveness of these policies within both supermarkets and vegetable markets (popular markets primarily for vegetables in China). Besides, 5 different factors are investigated to learn their potential influence on the usage of plastic bags, including generation, gender, the price for plastic carrier bags, the packaging style of products, and market type. Results show a boomerang effect of the pricing policy (i.e., charging for plastic carrier bags) in China. Specifically, the policy decreases the usage of plastic carrier bags by 44%. However, the total usage of plastic bags increases, rather than decreases due to the excessive usage of free inner plastic packaging bags used as alternatives to plastic carrier bags. Old and middle-young consumers are disproportionately affected by the pricing policy and behave significantly differently in their usage of plastic bags. Loopholes in management and policies are also discussed.