During the windy season it is common to see crummy plastic bags
being blown about city streets and parks. This is a slight seasonal
variation on the smelly piles of bottles, cans and other
un-recycled packaging materials that litter field and street corner
alike throughout the year.
It is estimated that Chinese cities produce nearly 200 million
tons of garbage a year. As cities expand and urbanization picks up
pace, we risk one day finding ourselves encircled by heaps of
garbage, with no fresh air to inhale and no clean water to drink -
unless we take action.
We dump unwanted materials into the garbage, both at home and at
work. And facilities to treat and dispose of this waste fall short
of the task before them. Furthermore, many cities do not even
bother to sort their residents' waste, which has made it difficult
to recover otherwise recyclable material.
Although there are many disposal sites throughout the country,
few steps have been taken to rein in the pollution they cause. And
to make things worse, rag-pickers, stray animals and even the wind
spread the waste, resulting in awful smells, the circulation of
potentially harmful substances and pests.
Of all the garbage out there, plastic waste, which can take a
long time to break down, bears a lot of blame for harming the
environment, though plastics account for only a small percentage of
the litter in this country.
China is one of the world's leading consumers of plastic, most
of which is used for packaging. The country produced about 2
million tons of plastic waste a year during the mid-1990s. That has
since grown to 7 million tons a year. Some of these plastics end up
in landfills. (I wonder where this stuff will be treated when the
country's landfills are full), and some ends up in our
environment.
China's per capita plastic consumption is about 14 kg, compared
with about 20 kg in some Western countries, so the situation might
strike some as not as serious as it could be. But that is only part
of the story. China still lacks the legal means needed to control
the over-use of plastics in packaging, despite widespread calls for
tighter legislation.
Various countries have adopted regulations to assign
responsibility for dealing with the use, recovery and re-use of
waste plastics. It is common to label plastic goods with the
recycling symbol to remind people not to just throw away such goods
when they finish with them.
Furthermore, consumers in such countries have a stronger sense
of environmental protection. While shopping, many use their own
bags instead of the plastic ones provided for free by shops. In
some countries, people get rewards for shopping like this.
Even in some developing countries, there have been measures to
curb the use of plastic bags, such as asking people to pay for them
or banning the import of certain types of bags. Some countries have
taken measures to encourage the development of environment-friendly
shopping bags.
Plastic packaging and its consequences on the environment have
long been a hot issue worldwide. However, despite the widespread
concern, plastics continue to proliferate. In a sense packaging is
necessary to help extend the shelf life of a given product and
cater to markets far away from the manufacturing sites. It can also
help burnish a brand's image by showing off a product's quantity,
how it used or when it expires.
However, the increased demand for packaged products has resulted
in increased packaging waste and the inevitable pollution.
Furthermore, the excessive consumption of plastic packaging
materials will eventually result in such serious consequences as
depleted natural resources, more energy consumed and polluted water
and air.
All people share a responsibility for this problem - from the
firms that make plastics, to the shopkeepers who use them and the
consumers who throw them away. It is up to all of us to walk away
from packaging waste, especially when it is plastic.
(China Daily by Xi Mi December 19, 2007)
