For sure, the loss of jobs associated with this stroy is nothing to be celebrate and will be its own problem, but the China Daily is reporting that Huaqiang, China’s largest plastic bag manufacturer, has shut because of a national environmental drive that will impose limits on their use starting on June 1. When initially announced, this was a story that attracted A LOT of attention, and there were more than a couple of bloggers who questioned what the real impact would be. However, while I am naturally skeptical of the breadth of the program (are umbrella covers included), I am still of the opinion that things are changing in China and that this ban will result in a sustained campaign. At first it will start with large retailers like Lianhua, Tesco, Walmart, B&Q, and IKEA… and then it will be upheld at Lawsons, Haode, Kedi… and so on. So, now that we have answered the question of whether or not the ban will have an impact, we now need to answer the question of how big the impact it will be For my part, while I heard of WWF and Roots & Shoots having programs with groups like Carrefour, I am very surprised that there is a real lack of public hand outs going on. Imagine a firm like PWC, Bayer, UPS, or others passing out 2 bags to all of their employees, or perhaps if WWF passed out 10,000 bags on Nanjing Road in Shanghai / Chang An Jie in Beijing with one of their partners and partnered it will a larger campaign. It would be powerful. It would have an impact.