Plastic pollution still a problem after ban

Chinese cities are producing more domestic waste and are still grappling with an acute plastic pollution problem 10 years after the government banned shops from handing out free plastic bags, official statistics show.

Urban areas generated about 179 million metric tons of garbage in 2014, 191 million tons in 2015 and 217 million tons in 2016, according to a report released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in January.

While that's less than the 246 million tons in the European Union in 2016 or the 258 million tons in the United States in 2014, most Chinese garbage went to incinerators without being sorted, which can cause secondary pollution. Kitchen waste, for instance, requires extra fuel to incinerate, and that increases costs and pollution if it is not separated out.