Fines announced by the State Administration of Industry and Commerce of as much as 10,000 yuan have had the effect of concentrating the mind wonderfully. Still, the effect has been inconsistent - a survey by Global Village, a Beijing-based environmental group, found 80 percent of rural stores were still giving bags free of charge. Worse, 96 percent of the food markets in Beijing continued to give plastic bags using the exemption in the law that allows plastic packaging for raw meat and noodles on hygienic and safety grounds.

How are we doing in the UK?

The answer, I fear, is not as well.

A charge of 5 pence per plastic bag was introduced only at the beginning of October this year, although Scotland had introduced a similar charge last year which saw the number of plastic bags handed out by stores slashed by 80 percent, the equivalent of 650 million bags, in a year, and &6.7 million raised from the charge for charities.

Wales was the first member of the UK to introduce a charge for bags, in 2011, with Northern Ireland following suit in 2013.

How has it gone down in England?

Well, the British media, always looking for the negative, immediately reported a huge surge in the theft of supermarket trolleys and wire baskets, but I find that like other members in my family, I have gotten used to the habit of carrying spare shopping bags in the car and refusing a bag when buying one or two items.

Maybe, just maybe, that will start to make a dent in the average of 140 plastic bags held in a UK household.

The author is managing editor, Europe, for China Daily. chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com

(China Daily 10/31/2015 page8)