GB/T 21660-2008The general requirement for environmental protection, safety, identification and marking of plastic shopping bags (English PDF)

Foreword

Note on this entry: openstd does not serve an official English version of this standard; what it serves is the Chinese PDF, with a text layer. The clause texts below were read on that Chinese original and translated for this listing. In case of any doubt, the Chinese original is authoritative.

Clauses 4, 5 and 6 of this standard are mandatory provisions. Annex A of this standard is a normative annex.

This standard was proposed by the China National Light Industry Council and is under the jurisdiction of the National Technical Committee on Plastic Products Standardization.

This standard was drafted by the Research Institute of Plastics Processing and Application of the Light Industry, Zhejiang Huafa Ecological Technology Co. Ltd, Shenzhen Wandajie Plastic Products Co. Ltd, Shenzhen Junhao Plastic Products Co. Ltd, Shenzhen Zhengwang Plastic Products Co. Ltd, Shenzhen Jiafa Plastic Products Co. Ltd, Wuhan Huali Environmental Protection Technology Co. Ltd, Huizhou Junhao Plastic Development Co. Ltd, and the National Quality Supervision and Inspection Centre for Plastic Products (Beijing).

Pursuant to the National Standard Announcement of the People's Republic of China (No. 7 of 2017) and the conclusions of the consolidation and simplification of mandatory standards, this standard was converted into a recommended standard with effect from 23 March 2017 and is no longer compulsory; its number was changed to GB/T 21660-2008.

1 Scope

China's national standard behind the plastic bag rules that changed Chinese shopping in 2008. It was issued as the mandatory GB 21660-2008 on 16 April 2008 and took effect on 1 June, the same day the State Council ban on free plastic bags came into force, and the two worked together: shops had to charge for bags, and the bags themselves had to be thick enough to be worth reusing. The thickness floor is the heart of it - no plastic shopping bag may be thinner than 0.025 mm - which is what removed the flimsy single-use bag from the market. Around that the standard sets an environmental declaration to be printed on the bag inviting repeated use, the hygiene requirements for bags in direct contact with food, which must follow the additive standard GB 9685 and the hygienic standard matching the resin (GB 9687 for polyethylene and starch-based bags, GB 9688 for polypropylene, GB 9681 for PVC, GB 9683 for composite bags) and must carry the words "for food", and a safety warning to keep the bag away from infants to avoid suffocation. The rest is identification: the name of the bag, the standard number it is made to, the size written as length by width plus gusset by thickness in millimetres, the nominal load in kilograms, the manufacturer, and a mark whose graphic symbol, resin code, safety note and material composition are set out in a normative annex, with the composition written between the signs "greater than" and "less than" and blends, fillers, plasticizers and recycled content each given their own notation. It applies to shopping bags made from film of any resin by heat sealing, bonding or similar bag-making processes. Since 23 March 2017 the standard is no longer mandatory: it was converted to the recommended GB/T 21660-2008.

This standard specifies the general technical requirements for the environmental protection, safety and identification of plastic shopping bags.

This standard applies to plastic shopping bags produced from film whose main raw material is any resin, made into bags by heat sealing, bonding or similar bag-making processes.

2 Normative references

The provisions of the following documents become provisions of this standard through reference in this standard. For dated references, subsequent amendments (excluding corrections) or revisions do not apply to this standard; however, parties to agreements based on this standard are encouraged to investigate whether the latest editions may be used. For undated references, the latest edition applies.

GB/T 1844.1 Plastics - Symbols and abbreviated terms - Part 1: Basic polymers and their special characteristics (GB/T 1844.1-1995, neq ISO 1043-1:1987); GB/T 1844.2 Part 2: Fillers and reinforcing materials (GB/T 1844.2-1995, neq ISO 1043-2:1988); GB/T 1844.3 Part 3: Plasticizers (GB/T 1844.3-1995, neq ISO 1043-3:1988).

GB 9681 Hygienic standard for polyvinyl chloride moulded products used as food packaging; GB 9683 Hygienic standard for composite food packaging bags; GB 9685 Hygienic standards for uses of additives in food containers and packaging materials; GB 9687 Hygienic standard for polyethylene moulded products used as food packaging; GB 9688 Hygienic standard for polypropylene moulded products used as food packaging.

GB/T 21661-2008 Plastic shopping bags.

3 Terms and definitions

The terms and definitions established in GB/T 21661-2008 apply to this standard.

4 Environmental protection requirements

4.1 Thickness of the plastic shopping bag. The minimum thickness of a plastic shopping bag shall not be less than 0.025 mm.

4.2 Environmental declaration. A plastic shopping bag shall carry an environmental declaration, such as "To protect the environment and save resources, please use repeatedly".