THE ban on free plastic bags had lost its effectiveness because of a lack of supervision and public awareness to limit the use of disposable bags.

    In wet markets and wholesale produce markets, the ban has never been strictly observed and in three years, no shopkeeper has been punished for giving away free plastic bags, according to a Daily Sunshine report.

    At the Futian Agriculture Produce Market, wholesalers still use small plastic bags because they fear business could be affected if they don’t provide free plastic bags. Even when shoppers take their own bags, sales staff often put the products into plastic bags.

    Unlike wet markets and farm produce markets, the use of plastic bags in supermarkets such as Rainbow, Shirble and Carrefour had been greatly reduced after supermarkets started charging for each plastic bag.

    “The use of plastic bags in supermarkets has dropped by two-thirds since the ban was implemented June 1, 2008, Shirble Department Store marketing manager Li Jin was quoted as saying by the Daily.

    Walmart China said it was using only one-10th the number of plastic bags used before the ban.

    A Shenzhen market supervision official who refused to be named was quoted by the paper as saying no one had yet been fined.

    “It is hard to monitor farm produce markets. When we arrive, they hide the plastic bags, and when we leave, they take them out,” the official said.

    In an effort to further cut plastic bags, China is considering a ban on free plastic bags in restaurants, hospitals, drug stores and bookshops, a Ministry of Commerce official said Saturday.

    But the ministry would seek public feedback, said Department of Commercial Service Administration official, Li Jiajian.

    “Governments should ... severely penalize shops that violate the ban,” said Li Bo, a member of the EnviroFriends Institutes o Environmental Science and Technology.

    The ban had reduced annual consumption of more than 24 billion plastic bags — or 600,000 tons of plastic — during the past three years, equal to savings of 3.6 million tons of petroleum, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

    (Han Ximin)