Japan in planning on making it mandatory to charge for plastic shopping bags at supermarkets, convenience stores, drug stores, and department stores as the country joins the global endeavor to diminish marine pollution.
Japans Environment Minister, Yoshaiki Harada made his plan public at a press conference, to ban the free distribution of plastic shopping bags, and leaving the price of a single-use plastic bag up to the retailers. They expect the retailers to charge between several yen, up to 10 yen per bag. It is also intended to ask retailers to use the revenues from charging for the bags, for environmental purposes, such as afforestation, and spreading awareness about marine pollution.
"The proportion of plastic bags among plastic waste is not big, but charging would be symbolic" -Yoshaiki Harada
It is also being determined whether to expand the target retailers to small and medium-sized business operators, as well as to exclude bio-degradable bags from the charge.
Japan produces the largest amount of plastic waste per capita after the United States. It's estimated that over 8 million tons of plastic waste flows into the oceans every year and cause micro-plastic pollution, which is very tiny pieces of degraded plastics that absorb harmful chemicals and are consumed by fish, birds and other animals.
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