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  Today Online 20 Apr 07
Reforming a bag lady
It will take more than a bag tax to make me change my wasteful ways

I LOVE plastic bags. That's not an easy confession to make in light of the green-bag campaigns these days but honestly, who doesn't like them?

They're light, convenient and reusable as bin liners and impromptu carriers. Reusable cloth or biodegradable paper bags just don't cut it, given our weather and shopping habits.

Waterproof plastic bags are great for wet marketing--no smelly fish trails in the MRT. When our tropical rains (which get you from dry to soaking wet in 10 seconds) hit, the bags protect my bargains. And they make great impromptu rain hats.

I'm so hardcore about it that I don't even like the biodegradable ones because they fall apart before I can reuse them as bin liners.

But ever since I saw pictures of dead sea turtles with plastic bags hanging out of their mouths--they think the bags are jellyfish--I've been feeling guilty about being a bag lady.

It's hard to ignore the figures: Singapore uses around 2.5 billion bags a year. That translates to 2,500 bags per family annually, which means we would have to change our bin liners seven times a day to justify taking that many.

This wasteful habit kills about 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals (including 30,000 seals) and turtles every year around the world.

So, I've been trying to cut down. Every time I'm offered an extra bag, I silence my inner freebie queen by thinking of cute turtles and seals snacking on one.

Sadly, my efforts are often thwarted by eager shop assistants who see double bagging as the ultimate in customer service.

You would think, then, that I would be happy that there is now a campaign to make people use fewer plastic bags.

Well, I like the campaign but I'm afraid it's doomed to fail, just as it did when the National Environment Agency introduced it last year.

Why? Because they are going about it the wrong way by using the stick instead of the carrot.

Want a plastic bag? Bad girl, pay 10 cents. I know that is not what they mean but that is what it feels like.

I want to feel good about caring about the environment, not angry because I'm being bullied into it.

The other issue is customer relations. I don't mind paying the "bag tax" or forking out extra money for proper biodegradable bin liners but I don't want retailers profiting at my expense.

Yesterday, I went to the grocery shop downstairs. The shopkeeper packed my stuff, then said: "Next time, I'm charging 10 cents, just like Ikea."

"No problem," I said, "but are you following Ikea's example and sending that money to WWF Singapore Conservation Fund to help fight the haze?" She blinked. Obviously not. She was using the drive as an excuse to pad her profits.

When plastic bags were introduced in the 1960s, my husband's grandfather used to turn them down in favour of cloth bags--but not because of the environment. He did it because, as he said: "Why should I help them advertise?" I can see his point.

Unless you're Gucci or Prada, shouldn't you be paying me to tot your logo? Even worse, if your shop is Ah Beng Electrics or Ah Lian Florist, there's no way I'm paying 10 cents for your bag.

So for the Bring Your Own Bag campaign to succeed, you have to use the carrot. Make it attractive for people to refuse the bags. Give every household reusable bags, run a spot-the-bag contest and see how many take up on the offer.

Or follow the example of some Japanese stores where, instead of making the customer pay for a bag, they give him rebates or extra points for not taking one.

Maybe it's time to bring in the big guns: Hire karung guni men as campaign consultants. After all, they're the only ones who have successfully turned all the aunties in my block into greenies and made them feel good about it too.

It doesn't matter if the Auntie upstairs is moved not by pictures of cute turtles but by cold, hard cash, as long as the end result is the same--plastic bags are recycled rather than thrown into the sea.

If anyone wants to fully convert me, just give me a Louis Vuitton-embossed reusable shopping bag. Waterproof, of course.

Tabitha Wang will not be shopping every first Wednesday of the month. She will donate her bag money to the Save the Sea Turtle fund instead.
links
Bring Your Own Bag Day on the NEA website

Related articles about Singapore: plastic bags efforts to reduce use of plastic bags, issues, discussions
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