World Environment Day: Let's beat plastic waste

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After shopping at a supermarket, how do you carry your groceries? Do you take reusable bags with you before heading to the market or buy plastic bags?

June 5 marks World Environment Day to raise awareness and encourage action for the protection of our environment. Started in 1974, the event has become a global platform for public outreach with more than 100 countries engaged.

Under the theme of “Beat Plastic Pollution," India, the host country of this year's event, called on all nations to help reduce the plastic waste on our planet and take care of the Earth.

2008: China enacts the toughest regulations against daily plastic products, the “Plastic Ban”. /Photo via VCG

China is among the first countries to limit the use of plastic bags. With these policies, citizens have become more concerned about the environment and plastic pollution.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, has affirmed its commitment to reducing plastic waste pollution.

It is expected that the NDRC will revise a policy published in 2008, which banned the production and sale of plastic bags less than 0.025 millimeters thick. The order will force customers to pay more money for the previously-free plastic bags.

To understand more about the role of plastic products in our daily lives, CGTN went on Beijing's streets and had chats with people who live in the capital city of over 20 million.

It is evident from their opinion, that people are willing to use the plastic materials as least as possible, some of whom even said they avoid using any of them in their daily lives, bringing their own bottles and using stainless products instead of disposable cups and cutlery.

Non-recyclable material at Richmond sanitary landfill site, June 2, 2018, in the industrial city of Bulawayo. /VCG Photo

But according to statistics from the World Environment Day's official website, people around the world use up to one million plastic drinking bottles every minute and five trillion plastic bags every year. Thirteen million tons of plastic leaks into our oceans, damaging the marine ecosystem and threatening the vulnerable species.

“On World Environment Day, the message is simple: reject single-use plastic, refuse what you can’t re-use," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message marking the June 5 event.

[Video by Lin Zihan; Guo Meiping also contributed to the story.]