Yesterday morning, a reporter at the Ya'ao Market near the northern 4th Ring Road saw that the eco-friendly plastic bags that were uniformly printed and sold by the market management when the "plastic limit order" was first implemented had disappeared. The plastic bags freely provided by each vendor came in various forms, especially at stalls selling vegetables, staple foods, dried goods, and sundries, where ultra-thin plastic bags were clearly back in use.
At one vegetable stall, the female vendor said cheerfully: "The eco-friendly bags that the market used to sell uniformly were too expensive, we stopped using them long ago. Thin bags are free, it's convenient for both of us." At the service counter responsible for managing the Ya'ao Market, a woman pointed to the "plastic limit" notice still posted on the wall and said: "The market has set up a special counter where merchants can voluntarily purchase eco-friendly plastic bags." When the reporter pointed out that many merchants were still using ultra-thin plastic bags and providing them for free, she admitted that "supervision is indeed difficult."
Subsequently, the reporter visited several markets in Chaoyang, Dongcheng, and Haidian districts, and found the use of ultra-thin plastic bags everywhere.
Inside the Runde Li Comprehensive Market in Xicheng District, reporters found that among the four or five merchants surveyed, all were providing eco-friendly bags for free. In response to doubts about not charging for eco-friendly bags, the merchants all stated that they would rather bear the cost themselves than charge for plastic bags, "for fear of losing customers."
Similarly, in the various comprehensive markets visited by the reporter, even vendors using thicker eco-friendly plastic bags were unwilling to charge shoppers for them.