Chinese Herald News (reporter Wu Yan) In order to protect the environment and reduce plastic waste, all retail stores in Japan have implemented a paid service for plastic shopping bags from July 1, 2020. After 1.5 years of hard work, the results are remarkable, and most customers no longer need to use plastic shopping bags. However, on the other hand, the performance of manufacturers producing plastic bags was much worse than before, and they began to recruit employees who voluntarily retired.
SUPER BAG, a shopping bag company based in Tokyo's Toshima ward, said on January 11 that it would recruit employees who voluntarily retired. According to the data, the recruitment and retirement targets are regular employees over the age of 50 and under 59 years old as of February 28, retired and re-employed employees over the age of 60 and under the age of 64. For employees who voluntarily submit retirement, the company will give a retirement fee and a special bonus.
As soon as the news came out, it caused a wide discussion on social networking sites. Some netizens even "pointed" at Former Japanese Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, demanding that he be responsible for laying off employees for shopping bag manufacturers.
Netizens said that in Koizumi's mind, the bankruptcy of some small and medium-sized enterprises is nothing at all in terms of protecting the global environment, even if the employees of these companies lose their jobs, Koizumi will not care. Some netizens said that plastic shopping bags have not reduced the production of plastic even if they are charged.
It is reported that "SUPER BAG", founded in 1905, is one of the few shopping bag manufacturers in Tokyo. As of March 31, 2021, the total number of employees, including temporary workers, was 485, and the turnover in 2020 reached 24.6 billion yen.
"SUPER BAG" said that the main reason for recruiting voluntary retired employees is "the paid policy of plastic shopping bags implemented throughout Japan and the spread of the new crown epidemic." It was learned that SUPER BAG had already closed its plastic bag production base in Shanghai, Shanghai Shiba Packaging Materials Co., Ltd., in December 2021, and also decided to dissolve its subsidiary "Middle Earth Manufacturing" in Toyama Prefecture in March this year.
As for whether plastic shopping bags really affect the environment, the voice of doubt has never stopped. According to the Shimizu Chemical Industry, which is engaged in the production of plastic shopping bags and environmentally friendly shopping bags, polyethylene produces carbon dioxide and water when burned, and harmful substances such as dioxins will not appear. Shimizu Chemicals also highlighted the environmental benefits of plastic shopping bags, which the company says can be used as fuel if incinerated at a waste treatment plant, which also reduces the use of heavy oil.
In addition, according to the basic volume, plastic bags account for a small proportion of marine plastic waste as a whole, accounting for only 0.3%. Therefore, in fact, the suppression of the use of plastic bags has limited effect on reducing plastic waste.
Some analysts pointed out that due to the promotion of charging plastic shopping bags, consumers have to buy environmentally friendly shopping bags, and this shopping bag can only hold a certain number of goods, if consumers want to buy more must prepare two or three environmental protection bags, some people feel troublesome to reduce shopping, which will directly affect economic development.
Studies have shown that if you want to be more environmentally friendly than a plastic shopping bag, you must use it 840 times. Others, like polyester bags, need to be reused 35 times, and paper bags need to be reused 11 times. In addition, environmentally friendly bags will produce carbon dioxide in the process of production and transportation, which is not environmentally friendly in itself.
It is also reported that in addition to plastic shopping bags, the Japanese government will also reduce the use of 12 kinds of disposable plastic products including forks and dinner knives, mixing sticks, straws, hair brushes, combs, razors, shower caps, hangers, and cloth covers from April 1 this year.