I thought this was a very interesting article because it explored the idea of banning plastic bags that we previously discussed in class. I did not know that China had taken such an initiative, and I applauded them for doing so. I know that China has a particularly bad pollution problem, so it was good that they enacted this law. However, my excitement soon disappointed once I read the results of this article. They were very different from my expectations, as I thought this initiative would have had wild success.
I thought it was ridiculous that 33.3% of people still bought plastic bags. This completely defeated the purpose of the whole ban, and simply thinking from the consumer perspective, that’s such an unsustainable, money-wasting practice. I also thought it was ridiculous that there was a black market for these plastic bags. I don’t see why it would be so hard to simply not use plastic bags. Perhaps an initiative China can take is banning plastic bags altogether, or making sure that consumers have their reusable bags with them before going shopping in farmers markets or supermarkets. It seems like there’s too many loopholes in this law that people keep using to make their way around it.
I don’t know how accurate this article was, though, since it was mainly based off 163 results from questionnaires and a 30-minute observation. I thought this would have been much more effective as a study analyzing the impact this law actually had on pollution and white pollution to be specific, as that what this law is trying to take a stand against. Although looking at the issue from a consumer point of view was very revealing and definitely provided some insight, I think what could make this study be even more revealing would be the short-term and long-term effects of the ban.
