Today Newspaper June 4 2005 - Bags full of Trouble

You might want to read this, especially the survey right at the end.

Bags full of trouble
Hooked on plastic, S'poreans won't change unless forced to by law
June 4 2005 Today Newspaper


Lee U-Wen
u-wen@newstoday.com.sg

THIS is a typical Singapore story in search of a happy ending.
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Ask Singaporeans if their compatriots care about the environment and the answer is emphatic: No, they don't.
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Ask them if they, themselves, know how serious the issue of plastic bags is — Singapore consumes an estimated 40 billion plastic bags each year or 27 per person per day — and, as expected, the answer is no. They had no idea the situation was so bad.
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So now that the problem has been spelled out and the consequences explained, we inch towards the obvious solution.
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Since this tiny island cannot afford to be swathed in plastic, which generally is not biodegradable, shouldn't there be a reduction in its use?
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And since consumers take away at least a million plastic bags for free each day (the rest go into areas such as production, packaging and lining public waste bins) would they agree to pay 5 cents for each bag? Just so that bags are not needlessly used?
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The answer is a resounding no. This from the 100 people who took part in a Today survey for this report.
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The solution they propose on the eve of World Environment Day on Sunday is surprisingly Singaporean.
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Turn the page and read on.
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Just who will remove the wrapper?
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Forget surveys. Would a business in Singapore dare to be different and risk losing its customers by making them pay for plastic bags?
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Ms Christel Ludwig tried.
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She runs the German Market Place, a store on Bukit Timah Road that sells food and spirits and used to go through as many as 5,000 bags per month.
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Back in her home country, Germany, the practice of charging for plastic bags has been in vogue for 15 years and Ms Ludwig thought she had every reason to try it here.
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"Probably, not many customers realise that the cost of the plastic bags used by stores is passed on to them," she said. "Charging is fair as only those customers who want bags get charged. This method also discourages waste as customers don't ask for more bags than they need."
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But theory is one thing and putting it into practice in the Singapore market is quite another.
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In January, Ms Ludwig took a deep breath and started charging customers 5 cents for each regular-sized bag and twice that for bigger ones.
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The scheme has been a stunning success. The number of plastic bags the shop uses has dropped by half.
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She has noticed that nearly half the people who visit her shop now bring their own shopping bags. And there has been no dip in sales.
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But don't expect larger retailers to go this route right away. There is a catch.
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Almost four out of every five customers at Ms Ludwig's shop are expatriates. Convincing the average Singaporean to follow suit is far more difficult, as Ikea found to its discomfort.
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The furniture giant observed Earth Day in April by doing away with plastic shopping bags for three days and encouraging shoppers to bring their own.
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It kept used plastic bags on standby and sold brown paper bags for 10 cents and its trademark blue bags for $1. An estimated 40,000 plastic bags were "saved" during that Earth Day weekend.
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Encouraging? Hardly.
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"We were berated by our customers for doing something stupid," said an Ikea employee who did not wish to be named. "I was frustrated and saddened. It all seems to boil down to that key problem in our country — self-centredness and a 'me, me, me' mentality."
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But there was a glimmer of hope as Ikea said that some customers wanted the campaign to be made more frequent, if not permanent.
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Meanwhile, other retailing giants are treading carefully. According to NTUC FairPrice chairman Chandra Das, while some Singaporeans are warming up to recyclable and reusable bags, "it would take a long time" before any tangible result could be seen from this lifestyle change.
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Earlier this week, FairPrice launched a reusable Green Bag at its stores, after importing 40,000 of them from China. They are currently being sold to shoppers at 99 cents each.
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"We know that we have to start somewhere and a small step is better than not doing anything at all," he added.
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Cold Storage and Carrefour, meanwhile, also feel they have done their bit to encourage customers to buy reusable shopping bags and to listen to those who ask for fewer bags.
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But so far, no major chain has dared to start charging openly for plastic bags. In Today's survey, only 21 per cent of the respondents said they would be willing to pay a nominal fee of 5 cents for every bag they received while shopping.
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Of course, the National Environment Agency has tried to minimise the fallout from the use of so much plastic by collecting used bags and disposing of them at its four incineration plants. The heat from the incineration process is used to generate electricity.
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But it is not simply a matter of collecting the bags and getting rid of them. Apart from the cost — each plastic bag costs more than 2 cents — there is also the related problem of scooping up the bags that do not find their way into rubbish bins.
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Last September, 2,000 volunteers combed Singapore's beaches and mangroves and picked up 88,000 discarded items. Plastic bags and containers accounted for three-quarters of the rubbish.
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The Singapore Environment Council has long advocated the use of biodegradable bags but no one is especially hopeful this will work, as consumers will be expected to pay for them. By consensus, the preferred solution is a bit more direct.
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That familiar feeling
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Singaporeans have long complained that it is always the Government that is expected to come up with solutions to even the most basic problems.
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But, when pressed for ways to reduce the plastic mist, their answer was: Let the Government step in and pass a law, just as it did to curb littering and smoking in public areas.
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Support for a law to ban or charge for plastic bags came even from Mr Grant Pereira, head of the Green Volunteers Network, the volunteer arm of the SEC.
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But wait. Before slamming the Singaporean penchant for passing laws to solve every problem, naysayers should know that this is exactly what developed countries are doing.
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Switzerland, Denmark and South Africa charge for bags. Three years ago, Ireland imposed a 15-cent tax on plastic bags, resulting in a 90 per cent decrease in usage. In the first year and a half, the levy there raised 13.5 million euros ($27.6 million), which has been funnelled into recycling facilities around the country.
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Closer to home, Bangladesh and parts of India have banned plastic bags all together. Bangladesh learned its lesson the hard way as 9.3 million bags were dumped in Dhaka every day and there were major floods in 1989 and 1998 as the plastic choked drains.
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Said Mr Pereira, who is in his 50s: "Charging for bags won't take off here unless it's an island-wide initiative. We need to be regulated, the Government must say that stores have to start charging.
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"Otherwise, retailers are asking what if they lose their customers to others. But have they thought: What if something good comes of it?"
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Survey Results (100 respondents) – conducted by Dawn Quek, Joyce Lin, Patricia Yap. Jasmine Zhao and Mervin Tay
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Did you know that Singaporeans, on average, use about 27 plastic bags per person each day?
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Yes – 9% No – 91%
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Did you know that one million plastic bags are given out free in Singapore each day?
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Yes – 18% No – 82%
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Are you aware of any alternatives to using plastic bags?
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Yes – 74% No – 26%
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Would you be willing to pay five cents for every plastic bag you get when you go shopping?
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Yes – 21% No – 79%
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Do you feel that, in general, Singaporeans are concerned about saving the environment?
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Yes – 12% No – 88%