Publication: NST
Date of publication: Nov 16, 2009
Section heading: Main Section
Page number: 18
Byline / Author: By Gary Phong
MALAYSIAN Nature Society Selangor welcomes hypermarket Carrefour's decision to implement a "no plastic bag" policy in three of its outlets in an effort to reduce use of the throwaway plastic bags, and to eventually stop their free distribution altogether.
An enormous quantity of plastic bags are checked out from supermarkets and other retail outlets every day only to end up in landfills or incinerators.
Each year, an estimated 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide, which is equivalent to one million plastic bags a minute.
As a consumer, an individual uses as many as 100 plastic bags a month. Only a small percentage of plastic bags are recycled because it generally costs more to recycle a plastic bag than to produce a new one. Plastic bags take a long time to degrade.
As they do, this can result in the release of toxins that can find their way into the food chain.
There are already tens of thousands of plastic litter in every square kilometre of ocean.
As a result, marine animals and birds die from choking or clogging of their intestines after ingesting plastic material.
When plastic bags are incinerated, highly toxic gases can be produced. About one million barrels of oil are required to produce the eight billion plastic bags used in Malaysia every year. The MNS, therefore, applauds the leadership and courage that Carrefour is demonstrating in seeking to address a very serious problem.
We look forward to seeing this practice extended to every Carrefour outlet. We would also urge the other supermarket chains as well as the retail industry as a whole to take similar action.
The government also has a leading role to play.
The countries in our part of the world that have banned or taken steps to actively discourage the use of plastic bags include Singapore, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.
Equally, we would also like to urge consumers when shopping to use reusable bags or reuse plastic bags as many times as possible before disposing of them with due care.
The MNS would also like to see the reduction and eventual halt of the sale of water in disposable plastic water bottles.
Most plastic water bottles are not recycled but trashed, and many of them end up in our drains, rivers and oceans.
These bottles, normally made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), take between 400 and 1,000 years to degrade and every tonne of PET manufactured produces about three tonnes of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
These bottles would be unnecessary if we just carried reusable bottles that we filled with drinking water.
State or local authorities may also consider following the example of the Australian town of Bundanoon which, in July 2009, banned bottled water and replaced it with reusable bottles that can be filled from fountains inside the town's shops or at water stations in the streets.
As Carrefour Malaysia CEO Guillaume de Colonges said, Carrefour has the advantage of a large consumer base and, as such, it can make an impact in promoting public awareness of the need to protect and conserve our environmental heritage.
Might Carrefour take the lead in phasing out the sale of bottled water from its shelves?
GARY PHONG
Selangor Branch
Chairman Malaysian Nature Society
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