It seems like everyone on the planet is talking about plastic bags. But different cultures find different uses of them. For example, in the U.S., have you seen plastic bags being used like they are in the following photos?
1. Bicycle seat cover
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Bikes are an important means of transport for many Chinese people. In a small town or village, a bike can get you all town. In big cities like Shanghai and Beijing, people ride bikes in their neighborhood but also from home to the subway and bus station They then leave the bikes nearby and take public transportation. It's their versions of "park and ride." Since bike seats can get wet outdoors, people cover them up with their free, used shopping bags. That's smart and eco-friendly (reuse), right? However, from the picture, you can see one bag appears loosely attached to the seat and looks like it could easily take off on the next gust of wind, becoming one more piece of infamous "while pollution"--a term coined to describe unsightly, littered plastic. Advice to Shanghai bike riders: Tie up the bag covering your seat! You'll save yourself from the wet seat, and avoid contributing to the growing litter problem!
2. Carryout sauce container
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Let me admit that I got the food in the picture from a small restaurant in a Shanghai alley -- a "hole in the wall" as we say in the U.S. The waiter deftly used a porcelain spoon to drop just the right amount of vinegar into the ultralthin plastic bag and made a pretty tie with the upper part of the bag: "Here's your sauce!" Actually the styrene foam lunch box was also wrapped in an ultrathin bag. I wonder what these places will use after June 1, when ultrathin bags will be banned. It wouldn't be economical for them to switch to heavier-gauge bags unless they somehow pass the additional cost on to customers. Those were delicious spring rolls, by the way.
3. Over-packaged silverware
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Well, silverware is the Western term. In China, it's simply wooden chopsticks (there are also stainless steel, silver and ivory ones). Since many folks eating out have hygienic concerns with restaurant-washed chopsticks, disposable chopsticks have become extremely popular. Many restaurants make you pay for their over-packaged silverware--a big bag with the restaurant's name, phone and address that contains a small bag of wet wipe and a pair of wrapped chopsticks. "You want sterilized chopsticks packages?" they ask you bluntly after you order, "Two yuan each!" Sure, bring them on. But the "disposable" chopsticks often are made of plastic--polished, nice and sturdy. It would be a huge waste to throw these away after one use. A local friend said restaurants actually collect the used chopsticks and have a third-party vendor clean and re-package them. While that may sound like a good idea, the news on Chinese TV was that authorities had busted underground cutlery clean-and-repackage workshops, which used low-quality laundry detergent and recycled water to wash them. No wonder the new trend, lead by Western expatriates in China, is to bring your own chopsticks to eat out.