Plastic Bag Ban-Mexico City

Ban on plastic bags (Mexico City)

I am really optimistic to hear that Mexico City, in an attempt to become more eco-friendly, is placing a ban on plastic shopping bags. In addition to grocery store use, plastic bags are used in Mexico as containers for cheaper bulk products, such as shampoo and food items. Use of the plastic bags makes the products cheaper (less spent on packaging).

"The new law complements the city's efforts to turn one of the planet's biggest and messiest waste-management systems into the greenest in Latin America, if not the developing world. Mexico City only recycles about 6 percent of the 12,500 tons of trash it generates daily — but aims to compost or burn for energy 85 percent of it by 2013."

"The real challenge to the city's new attack on plastic bags is the unregulated informal economy of street vendors, who feed the bag addiction. The Mexico City Chamber of Commerce estimates there are 35,000 vendors in the downtown area alone — many of whom spend their days scooping everything from chili-covered grasshoppers, a Mexican delicacy, to ribbon headbands into plastic bags."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32758015/ns/world_news-world_environment/