Beijing (AFP)

No more plastic bags, straws or disposable cups: China, the world's leading polluter, will ban several single-use products this year in major cities to reduce waste and pollution.

Forty years of unbridled economic development have created wasteful habits in the country of 1.4 billion people.

The Asian giant produced in 2017 no less than 210 million tonnes of waste, according to the World Bank, which warns that the total could reach 500 million tonnes in 2030.

On Sunday, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of the Environment announced a five-year plan to reduce plastic consumption.

In addition to disposable bags and food straws, polystyrene and disposable dishes will have to disappear this year.

The latter is, with disposable lunch boxes, widely used in the country while home meal delivery services have experienced rapid development in recent years.

In hotels, it will be necessary to turn the page on the habit of giving free of charge combs or toothbrushes or other plastic objects after the end of 2022.

Objective: reduce the use of plastic by 30% over five years.

If the plan seems ambitious, its implementation remains to be demonstrated, warns the ecologist Ma Jun, head of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), funded by private donations.

And to recall that in 2008, the country took measures to prohibit free plastic bags. Today, the regulations are still far from being applied to the letter.

- Trash oceans -

China claims to promote alternatives such as cloth bags, paper bags and degradable shopping bags.

"The authorities have done well to end the free plastic bags in shops," said AFP Mr. Ma.

Disposable items account for around 70% of the plastic waste strewn around the marine environment.

Last summer, a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of long-term dangers to the environment and human health.

"Today they (the government) have to work with online trading platforms to implement the regulations," says Ma.

The document also calls very explicitly on companies in the sector to reduce waste and disposable plastics.

In a country where home parcel delivery has grown considerably, postal packaging has also become a scourge.

Under the new directive, highly populated regions such as the cities of Beijing and Shanghai and the province of Jiangsu (east) will ban the use of non-biodegradable packaging from the end of 2022.

Each year, the "single party", the world's largest online business event, alone results in the delivery of 2.3 billion packages in one day ...

Shanghai, at the cutting edge of environmental issues, launched the most ambitious waste sorting and recycling program in China last year. It should gradually be deployed in all cities of the country by 2025, starting with Beijing in May of this year.

© 2020 AFP