Giving Compass' Take:

• Recently, China's National Development and Reform Commission issued a new policy that will start to phase out single-use plastics.

• Can other countries struggling with plastics follow the same policy plans?

• Learn about the benefits of transitioning to a circular economy to reduce plastic pollution.

This past weekend, China's National Development and Reform Commission issued a new policy that will phase out single-use plastics over the next five years. The policy states that non-biodegradable bags will be banned in major cities by the end of 2020, and in all cities and towns across the country by 2022. Fresh fruit and vegetable markets may continue to use them until 2025.

Restaurants must stop serving straws by the end of this year and reduce total usage of single-use plastics by 30 percent. Hotels have five years to phase out all single-use items. Starting in 2022, some food delivery services in Beijing and Shanghai will have to switch to biodegradable packaging, with those rules applying to the whole country by 2025.

China knows it has to do something about the enormous quantity of plastic waste it generates. The BBC says that China collected 215 million tonnes of household waste in 2017, but there are no figures for recycling.

This is good news, although the switch to biodegradable plastics is not ideal. Research has shown that biodegradable plastics still pollute the environment, that they fail to break down unless conditions are ideal, and can still harm wild animals.

Read the full article about single-use plastics ban in China by Katherine Martinko at TreeHugger.