Jane Lai
FEWER plastic bags are being used by shoppers at supermarkets and department stores in Shenzhen after the ban forbidding businesses from offering free plastic bags to customers took effect June 1.
“The number of plastic bags consumed in our supermarkets reduced by roughly 80 percent in June, but the consumption of plastic bags used to contain food such as rice and vegetables has increased significantly,” an employee with the public relations department of Wal-Mart, surnamed Mou, said yesterday.
Mou said this was because many people who did not want to pay for the reusable bags used the storage bags intended solely for holding food. She stopped short of providing the percentage increase of the storage bags used.
Other supermarkets and department stores such as China Resources Vanguard, Carrefour and Jusco along with Rainbow, Shirble and Moi were in a similar situation.
“The heavy consumption of the storage bags has become a dilemma for management and we haven’t come up with an effective way to deal with this problem,” Mou said.
The municipal administration for industry and commerce will impose fines up to 20,000 yuan (US$2,857) from today on violators after the one-month grace period expired.
The punishment also includes confiscating or revoking the business licenses.
“We found a number of violations and gave verbal warnings to some small businesses that were still offering free bags during inspections in June,” Peng Conglin, an official with the administration said yesterday.
According to Chinese law, retailers who fail to list the prices of plastic bags or sell the bags at prices that are different from the listed prices will be fined up to 5,000 yuan. Those who offer plastic bags at prices cheaper than the purchase costs or for free will be fined up to 10,000 yuan, the authorities said.
Businesses that fail to present receipts for the plastic bags they have purchased will be fined up to 20,000 yuan and the business licenses may be revoked.