An Analysis Of "Plastic Closure" From The Perspective Of Industrial Chain

The invention and wide usage of plastic bags in the20th century has brought about severe environmental issues. Countries around the world have put forward their Plastic Bag Ban (PBB) respectively. China has also been actively imposing the PBB. Chinese government initiated the PBB in2008. Since June2008, supermarkets, malls, terminal markets and other retailers are supposed to adopt the plastic bag charging system so that people’s consuming behavior might be adjusted through this measure, thus reducing the use of plastic bags.In recent years, with the promotion of PBB, the evaluation of its effect and the optimization of the policy have been in the spotlight. However, the recent research focused more on the implementation of the policy per se; rarely does it analyze or try to optimize the efficiency from the perspective of industrial chain. Based on the rigid demand of plastic bags, the essay examines the implementation of PBB from the perspective of the entire industrial chain and ways to improve the project.Firstly, through field research, literature survey, comparative analysis and other researching methods, the essay analyzes the effect of the PBB from three different dimensions, the minimizing effect of PBB, public environmental protection awareness and the implementation of policy and regulations. The result shows that PBB failed to meet the previous expectation. The minimizing effect was limited; there was no significant change in type and structure of plastic bag usage; the use of plastic bags decreased significantly in normal retailing channels such as hypermarkets, supermarkets or shopping malls while in other channels such as terminal markets rose instead of dropping; the goal to comprehensively utilize resources was not realized. To a certain degree, PBB educated the public and aroused people’s environmental awareness. However, it didn’t have any authentic effect on consumer behavior. Deficiency in the policy and the supervision difficulties all make the implementation extremely hard. This will undermine the authority of law and regulation.Secondly, based on the industrial chain analysis, the essay points out the major reasons why PBB is only partially valid.First of all, it’s caused by the existence of low-end manufacturers. Medium sized enterprises, small enterprises and Gray enterprises divide the manufacturing market into three shares. This indicates that the plastic bag industry is still a low-end industry, which is disadvantageous to the prohibition of ultra-thin plastic bags. Furthermore, the industrial chain profit distribution mechanism is incomplete. On one hand, retailers from normal channels such as supermarkets benefit largely during the implementation process. By contrast, retailers from abnormal channels such as the terminal markets face high implementation cost. Thus, they are not motivated to implement the PBB spontaneously; on the other, the plastic bag industry has a small scale and low market concentration. The fierce competition in manufacturing reduced the manufacturers to price followers. The economic stimulation of PBB failed to trace back to the upriver of the industrial chain, which not only affects the effective implementation of the policy but also results in the lack of recycling system of plastic bag industry in the industrial chain.Meanwhile, the lack of a sound auxiliary safeguard mechanism is also a major reason why PBB is only partially valid.When further analyzes the whole plastic bag industry, the essay finds out that retailing and manufacturing are the major links that can affect the PBB, in which the cost is the primary factor that impacts the retailing. Based on this findings, with the objective to make green the industry, the essay puts forward suggestion that the supervision focus should move to upriver link in the industrial chain; complete the recycling link; upgrade the product by upgrading the industry; reasonably adjust and distribute industry profit to reach the final prospective of industrial green development. Meanwhile, a tax and fiscal policy should be completed, technology innovation should be encouraged and public awareness and participation should be highlighted for the lasting effect of PBB.