SHANGHAI's supermarkets, wet markets and department stores will stop supplying free plastic bags from June 1 this year in compliance with a State Council order.

The new rule aims to reduce the use of plastic bags and the notice on the central government Website (www.gov.cn) urges people to use cloth bags, baskets and reusable carriers.

More than 3,800 supermarkets, 4,000 convenient shops and 140 hypermarkets will apply the rule before the deadline of June 1, said the Shanghai Chain Store Association.

Some stores have already cut back on the use of plastic bags, including Ikea, one of the city's major home furnishing stores, the Metro Jinjiang Shopping Center and Dia, a discount supermarket chain.

Metro has been charging 0.3 yuan (4 US cents) for small plastic bags and 0.5 yuan for large ones since it opened its the first outlet in Shanghai in 1996. The policy won't change after June 1, it said.

Plastic bags in Dia are 0.1 yuan while yellow plastic bags in Ikea are 0.5 and 1 yuan according to the size.

Figures from Ikea showed that bag consumption dropped by at least half on the first day it adopted the policy on August 1, 2006.

More hypermarkets in the city are thinking of their own ways to reduce the use of plastic bags. Li Jing, a PR manager at Carrefour, said the hypermarket had begun to provide the third generation of its own environmental friendly carriers to customers at 4.9 yuan, which is what they cost to make. The bags were made from environmentally friendly materials and were degradable, he said. The store hadn't yet worked out how much it would charge for plastic bags.

The State Council regulation also bans the use of ultra-thin bags, under 0.025mm thick, because they tend be thrown away as they break too easily.