Plastic Bags Yes or No?

Did you know that the main raw material to make plastic is petroleum? This means that the more plastic bags are produced, the more oil – a non-renewable source of energy – is used up.

However, in the past few years, international awareness on the damaging and dangerous impact of plastic bags to the environment has been spreading like wildfire.

Governments all over the world have become more involved in environmental conservation efforts and countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Zanzibar have decided to ban the usage of plastic bags altogether. And as of 1st June 2010, plastic bags will no longer be given away for free to customers in China.

In countries such as Germany, South Africa and Ireland, customers who insist on plastic bags will be incurred a surcharge. Major retailers in the United Kingdom, France and New Zealand on the other hand are promoting the use of cloth bags, paper bags or grocery bags, in place of plastic ones.

Is it really necessary for us to have plastic bags every time we buy something at the shops? Online sources reveal that at least a trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year and more than four million plastic bags end up as litter every year.

When they end up in landfills, it would take up to 1,000 years for all those little plastic bags to degrade.

Most Malaysians either choose to ignore, or do not realise, how plastic bags can affect the environment. Plastic bags could also potentially be a health hazard as they contain a common chemical known as Bisphenol A, which certain studies have linked to diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

The Malaysian government has been studying the issue and through the local authorities throughout the country, it has come up with a project called the “No Plastic Day Campaign”.

The campaign is an awareness programme initiated to raise people’s consciousness about the environment and how global warming could adversely affect their daily life.

The campaign initially started at retail stores, malls and supermarkets such as Carrefour, IKEA, JUSCO and others in Penang, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur followed by other states, including Sarawak.

Although the response towards the campaign was good in the beginning, it slowly began to fizzle out as people could not seem to totally give up their plastic bags, despite the best efforts of the shops to promote ‘eco-bags’ or re-usable bags. Although there are stores that hand out biodegradable plastic bags, they are in the minority.

One survey found that most consumers prefer to have plastic bags for the convenience. It was much to inconvenient to carry around a shopping bag brought from home or resort to carrying their purchases in their pockets.

Despite such challenges, the Sarawak Government – through the Ministry of Environment and Public Health and the local authorities – is determined to turn the tables on that trend by carrying out the “No Plastic Bags Campaign” throughout the State, starting with Miri and then followed by Sibu.

Sibu

Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) started its “Say No to Plastic Bags Day” on 16th November, 2009. SMC deputy chairman Daniel Ngieng hoped the programme would be able to educate the public on the environmental hazards of using plastic bags.

“I also hope that through this programme, the public would be able to reduce the use of plastic bags and replace them with ecofriendly shopping bags.”

There were currently 33 business outlets taking part in the programme. Every Monday these business outlets pledged to charge customers 20 sen for each plastic bag requested. Some mini-market operators have taken the concept a step further by charging 20 sen per bag on other days, as well. The proceeds collected from the sale of the plastic bags will then be given to charity.

SMC has found that there has been a general decrease in the use of plastic bags in all the participating outlets, although it has yet to get an exact figure on the usage.

Miri

Miri was the first city to implement the “No Plastic Bag Every Day” campaign, which began on 1st May, 2010.

The programme was initially called “Say No to Plastic Bags on Sunday”, where markets, mini-marts and stores stopped providing their customers with free plastic bags, rather they charged 20 sen per bag, when requested. This earlier programme was implemented on 16th September, 2009.

However, supermarkets are still giving out free plastic bags to their customers on weekdays.

Miri City Council (MCC) Mayor Lawrence Lai however explained that once the campaign has started, these plastic bags would be charged 20 sen each. Out of this, 10 sen would be donated to charitable bodies such as the Miri Dialysis Centre, and the remaining 10 sen would go to MCC.

Since plastic bags will still be given out in supermarkets and stores, the council will focus on creating greater awareness among members of the public on the advantages of using “ecofriendly” bags that can be re-used every time they go shopping.

One organisation, the Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (FOMCA) has proposed that local councils take the lead in reducing the usage of plastic bags by distributing biodegradable bags either free or pay-per-use.

There is clearly still much work to be done to turn Malaysians “green”. Despite the best efforts of various parties, many Malaysians are still hazy over terms such as ‘global warming’, ‘climate change’ or ‘biodiversity conservation’. There is no time to point fingers though, as to who should start first. Instead, every Malaysian should start being ‘green’ conscious, not only for our sake, but for the future of our children and grandchildren, who will inherit this world and the environment that we leave for them.

So the next time the shop assistant offers the plastic bag for your groceries, make sure to decline and use your own ecobag.