"Singapore shoppers take 820 million plastic bags from supermarkets each year: Study
SINGAPORE: Shoppers in Singapore take 820 million plastic bags from supermarkets each year – an average of 146 plastic bags for each person, a study commissioned by the Singapore Environment Council (SEC) has found.
These 820 million bags can cover the land area of 126 Gardens by the Bay, and the petroleum used in their production can power 1.9 million car rides across the length of the island and back, the SEC said.
SEC chairman Isabella Huang-Loh said told reporters on Tuesday (Jul 31) that plastic bag usage in Singapore has "quantumly grown" over the years.
"We started three decades ago trying to educate people to go hygienic with plastic bags," she said, referring to campaigns that encouraged the bagging of waste before disposal down the chute.
While the plastic bag charge seems to have worked for the UK, SEC executive director Jen Teo said reducing usage here has to start with education as it will "drive longer term benefits in terms of behavioural change".
In some of the countries where the charge has been introduced, there has been some reduction in plastic bags for a period of time, but over the longer term the use of plastic bags will then increase," she explained."
Maybe i m too demanding or had oversimplified the addiction to plastic bags by Sgp folks if i say: Just ban the use of plastic bags n be done with it!!
Met a Mauritian last Sunday at tbe ActiveSG volunteer event n got talking abt plastic waste as we saw a lot of plastic water bottles lying around at the end of the event n he mentioned that he was shock last year while back visiting his parents that plastic bags r banned in Mauritius! You can't even buy them at the supermarkets or shops! Those that r available r made of potatoes starch n biodegradable!!
While Mauritiusis a small nation with a very small population in the middle of Indian ocean n can totally feel the plastic waste floating in their seas, what is to stop Sgp fr banning the use of plastic bags in the supermarkets n shops?
Yes charges can only work temporarily as people got used to paying. It can also induces the start if a behavioural change that can be further reinforced with education; n vice versa. Only when people truly internalized the habit of using own bags for shopping n getting garbage disposal bags will the addiction to plastics bags be eradicated.
We hv been talking abt this for far too long without any tangible results. In fact, it got worst! Continue the education. At the same time banned plastic bags. It will work much better.
Deal with the backslashes? Give each family 2 big eco-friendly bags for shoppingn they will b cool. As for garbage bags, do what the Canadian, British, Japanese, etc. had been doing for years now, cheap bio-degradable bags !!
Be BOLD as this thing has been ard far too long for a 1st World Nation like Sgp to mark ard!! YES!!??
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