China bans retailers supplying plastic shopping bags

(Jan 9, 2008) (The Canadian Press) BEIJING -- China's government announced it will ban shops from giving out free plastic bags and called on consumers to use baskets and cloth sacks instead to reduce environmental pollution.

The regulation comes only about 15 years after shopkeepers started handing out cheap, flimsy plastic bags to customers. But "white pollution," a reference to the colour of many of the bags, has cluttered landfills and become a constant eyesore.