Survey reveals worsening attitudes to the environment

A phone survey of almost 4,000 people in 35 Chinese cities has revealed some attitudes to environmental protection have worsened. The number of people unwilling to bring their own shopping bag rose 12.9% in 2013 to 18.5% this year, while the number of people supporting garbage classification slightly dropped. 57% of people said they were satisfied with government performance on the environment, a drop of 3% on the 2015 level. However, 71.1% of people had increased confidence in central government's ability to solve environmental pollution problems. As for particular issues, 62% of people surveyed think water quality is relatively safe or very safe and 56% think food products are relatively or very safe. The study was conducted by Shanghai Communications University and reported in The Beijing News.