Mexico. In 2009 the Federal District of Mexico City  has decided to ban all non-degradable plastic bags within Mexico City and to give fines to shops that still give out free plastic bags. This is because an estimations says that Mexico City uses around 20 million plastic bags a day. The bill proposed in 2009 was a good one, but under pressure of plastic manufacturers the Federal District came up with a less strict bill. The new initiative promotes the recycling of plastic. The following link will show how plastic is recycled in Mexico.

Plastic recycling machine in Mexico

USA. In the USA around 133 city- or country-wide anti-plastic bag regulations have been passed. The regulations put in place, which range from not providing any plastic bags at all up till paying extra for plastic bags. In Washington D.C. they want to reduce the use of all sorts of bags, because a lot of the bags (paper or plastic) end up in the local rivers. This results in paying extra for any kind of bag one wants to take from the store. In the USA, it’s not only the plastic bags, but also the huge amount of plastic bottles that are a problem.