China ban keeps up to 100 billion bags from landfills

As many as 100 billion plastic shopping bags have been kept out of landfills in China since authorities ordered supermarkets to stop giving them out for free, a packaging industry group official said. Dong Jinshi, who had campaigned for the June 2008 nationwide ban on the distribution of free plastic bags, said the order had stopped an estimated 36.5 billion of them ending up in China's landfills each year. "It's possible that as many as 100 billion plastic shopping bags were kept out since the introduction of the law," Dong, vice-chairman of the International Food Packaging Association in Beijing,