Starting June 1st, 2008 China will ban plastic shopping bags in all grocery stores, department stores and shops that are 0.00098 inches thick.  They have also banned them from even being produced.  The ban takes affect two months prior to the 2008 Olympic games, proof that China Is really trying to clean up their act.

Stores will be offering cotton and canvas bags like they have been for centuries and from all accounts, most Chinese seem unfazed by the new law.  Several other countries have made similar laws while some shops have started to charge between 7 and 74 cents per plastic bag when a customer requests them.

Now if only us bloated Americans can reduce using them or, at the very least, return them to the grocery store you got them from and put them in the happy little recycling bin that is at the entrance we too could go a little greener.  My local stores sell high quality canvas bags for $1.00 that hold double the amount of food that a single thin plastic bag can and will last for years.

Source: BusinessWeek

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