BEIJING, CHINA: Shoppers in China will have to pay for plastic bags at supermarkets and other retail stores as part of a nationwide crackdown on the environmentally damaging items, the government has announced.

The production, sale and use of plastic shopping bags thinner than 0.025 millimetres will also be banned completely, the State Council, or cabinet, said in a statement posted on its website late Tuesday (January 8th).

"Plastic shopping bags, due to reasons such as excessive use and inefficient recycling, have caused serious energy and resources waste and environment pollution," the statement said.

"The super thin bags (those thinner than 0.025 mm) have especially become a main source of plastic pollution as they are easy to break and thus disposed of carelessly."

The new rules will take effect starting June 1, the cabinet said, although it did not provide details on how much shoppers will have to pay for the bags.

The statement said companies would be urged to produce bags that are more endurable and recyclable, while consumers will be encouraged to use plastic shopping bags more sensibly.

In China, the overuse of plastic bags is a major problem.

In the booming southern city of Shenzhen, at least 1.75 billion plastic bags are used each year, according to previous data released by local authorities and published by the official Xinhua news agency.

Shenzhen's environmental protection department said the bags were posing a huge environmental problem, as they generally did not decompose for 200 years, while some never would at all, Xinhua reported.

Ahead of the national directive, Shenzhen announced in November it was considering placing fees on the use of plastic bags, with fines of up to 50,000 yuan for retailers that gave them away for free.

However whether the national crackdown will be implemented remains in doubt, since local authorities are infamous in China for ignoring directives from the central government that aim to curb pollution among many other issues.