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  The Straits Times 20 Nov 05
Plastic bag charge will do good
 by Leong Ching

IN A letter to the Straits Times Forum page recently, one retailer bemoaned: 'In the retail business I am operating, I am forced to give out lots of plastic bags. 'Even when buying diapers which are already pre-packaged neatly with carrying handles, most customers still insist on additional bags simply because they are 'shy' to be seen carrying the diapers. Our service will be perceived as poor if we restrict the use of bags.'

This is one case where the customer is not always right.

Each day, about one million bags are used in Singapore. Those that are re-used as garbage bags are relatively less troublesome as they can be burnt.

But it is the bags that are thrown away as litter which cause problems - not just in terms of cleaning up costs but in terms of the damage they do to Singapore's environment, choking fish and birds, and strangling mangroves.

During a coastal clean-up of the Kranji mangroves in 2001, the Singapore Environment Council found that plastic made up 65 per cent of the trash collected.

Almost a quarter of this was plastic bags and wrapping. In 2002, it was reported that FairPrice gave out a total of 160 million bags each year. Cold Storage gave out 70 million plastic bags at a cost of $2 million.

This is no small beer, but why am I concerned with plastic bags now?

Because I think persuading people to use less plastic is the most direct way to drive home the message of environment conservation.

Let's face it, being 'green' is not always seen as a mainstream pursuit. Many people think it is something for people like Prince Charles of Britain and his vast estate to worry about: producing expensive organic food, talking about sustainable development and so forth.

Being 'green' is not for people with families to feed, jobs to keep and mortgages to service. It is easy to ignore the environment because it is not an immediate concern.

Environmental damage may be an important issue but it takes a long time for the damage to show.

We are like the proverbial frog being boiled alive without realising it.

At the start of Clean and Green Week last week, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew urged Singaporeans to look at the world, understand how its environment will change in half a century and then do their bit to conserve the environment.

He noted that from 1950 to today, the human population has doubled (to 6.5 billion) but production of goods and services has gone up seven times, energy and oil consumption seven times, and carbon emissions four times in the same period.

This has caused many natural disasters. 'If we go on at this rate, I believe mankind is in jeopardy...before 100 years, 50 years, there will be many problems,' he said.

How can we make a start in Singapore?

With the humble plastic bag. Plastic is practically indestructible. You use a plastic bag for 20 minutes and it remains a blight on the environment for the next 1,000 years.

Supermarkets here ought to start charging for plastic bags for two reasons: It will cut costs and promote environmental awareness.

If you want to get the 'green' message across, nothing can match the plastic bag charge in terms of sheer reach. With a bag charge of say 5 cents, every household in Singapore will get the 'green' message.

Strangely enough, supermarkets have been reluctant to charge their customers for bags.

In 2002, a Cold Storage spokesman was quoted as saying: 'We have conducted surveys and the results indicate clearly that customers will not pay for the shopping bags.'

Well, what do you expect the results of such a survey to be? Of course, customers will say they do not want to pay for bags. It is like asking if drivers want to pay to park.

If all supermarkets levy a bag charge, no supermarket will suffer a drop in business. If a supermarket does not want to be accused of using the bag charge as an excuse to reduce its costs, it can donate the money to charity.

The experience of Ireland is instructive. In 2002, Ireland decided to levy a 9 pence (about 20 Singapore cents) charge on each plastic bag. It has reduced the number of bags used by 90 per cent, and raised millions of euros in revenue. Each year, the amount is estimated to be at 10 million euros (S$20 million).

To be fair, most retailers here have tried to educate consumers about the need to use fewer bags. The large supermarkets display re-useable cloth bags prominently and educate their staff on the need to use bags prudently.

Recently, a supermarket launched a project to encourage the use of cloth bags. But a survey of about 100 people found that nearly 80 per cent were unaware of the project.

They are likely to remain blissfully ignorant - until they see an extra 5 cents charge on their receipts.
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