Photo by Zainub (Creative Commons)

This weekend, China joined a growing list of countries that have banned the free hand-out of plastic shopping bags in stores.

Retailers will instead to be required to charge for sturdier, re-usable bags.

The move is just one initiative aimed at ramping up the country’s green credentials before this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, and it’s expected to reduce China’s plastic bag consumption - currently clocking in at a staggering 3 billion bags every day - by a third.

In related plastic bag news, my hometown grocery stores still hand out free bags to all and sundry. But there are signs of hope - the Orwellian-sounding Liquor Control Board of Ontario has just banned plastic entirely in all its liquor stores.

I’ll drink to that!

Eva Holland

Eva Holland is a historical researcher and freelance writer based in Ottawa, Canada. She is a blogger for World Hum and for Rolf Potts Vagablogging, and her travel writing has appeared in The Ottawa Citizen, and The Edmonton Journal.