Newsletter
RESTRICTIONS ON PLASTIC BAGS AND DISPOSABLE TA-BLEWARE
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has promulgated the Regulations for Re-strictions on the Use of Plastic Bags and Dis-posable Plastic (Including Expanded Polystyrene) Tableware, which provide for the phased intro-duction of quantitative limits on the use of plastic shopping bags and disposable tableware. The EPA anticipates that a year after implementation of the regulations, the quantity of plastic shop-ping bags used can be reduced by 30.86%, and that of plastic tableware by 37.72%. However, the measures will also impact plastic goods manufacturers and their raw material suppliers.
Implementation of the regulations will be phased in over the course of 2002. The first targeted between sectors will be government agencies at all levels, public-sector enterprises, military agencies, military welfare stores, public- and private-sector educational establishments, and public-sector medical institutions, to which the regulations will apply from 1 July 2002. The second phase, planned to take effect on 1 January 2003, will cover department stores, retail dis-count stores, supermarket chains, convenience store chains, fast food chains, and catering es-tablishments with their own retail premises. In the third phase, the restrictions will be extended to food stalls, but no date has as yet been set. The restrictions that will be introduced are as follows:
1.Plastic bags provided by businesses to consumers to pack purchased goods should not contain polyethylene (PE), polypro-pylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) formed by film blowing, rolling, or extrusion, and of a thickness less than 0.06 mm.
2.Plastic shopping bags containing PE, PP, PS or PVC, formed by film blowing, rolling, or extrusion, but of a thickness of 0.06 mm or greater may still be used, but must not be supplied free of charge, and their price must not be included in the price of goods purchased by consumers.
3.Plastic shopping bags supplied in the fol-lowing ways are not subject to the restric-tions:(1)Those displayed for sale packaged as finished goods.
(2)Those used to directly to pack fresh goods or foods such as fish, meat, fruit and vegetables.
(3)Those used by factories to pack their products.
(4)Those used to pack medicines dis-pensed by medical institutions.
Establishments to which the restrictions apply should not supply plastic (including expanded polystyrene) disposable tableware, including cups (not including cup lids, and not including sealing films and cup bases for paper cups used for beverages), bowls (not including bowl lids), plates, trays, dishes, meal boxes, and plastic in-ner trays used to pack food in meal boxes. But this does not include items filled with food, packed as goods by sealing with film or foil, and displayed for sale on shop shelves.