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solonavi 11 April 2007 Campaign 227 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

NEA Singapore

The National Environment Agency (NEA) together with the Singapore Environment Council (SEC) and the major supermarkets would be launching the first Bring Your Own Bag Day (BYOBD) on 18 April 2007. This is in conjunction with Earth Day 2007.  Subsequently, every first Wednesday of the month will be a designated BYOBD.  On BYOBD, shoppers who do not bring their own shopping bags can purchase reusable bags available at the participating supermarkets or donate 10 cents for each plastic bag taken at the checkout counters.

Participating retailers for this round include Carrefour, Cold Storage, Giant, NTUC FairPrice, Prime Supermarket, Sheng Siong and Shop N Save (a total of about 200 outlets). Those who need plastic bags for their purchases will be prompted by checkout staff to make a token donation. This is to encourage shoppers to use reusable bags instead of single-use plastic bags so as to minimise wastage of plastic bags. The donations collected will go to the SEC to fund its environmental activities.

NEA will be working in partnership with participating retailers, SEC and schools prior to the event to promote this campaign. Participating retailers will put up posters and announcements to inform their patrons, and students from Millennia Institute will be located in all the major supermarkets and hypermarkets across the island to promote this campaign.

Hong Kong implemented its first No Plastic Bag Day (NPBD) in April 2006. It was a success, with a reported 62% of shoppers bringing their own bags and a corresponding reduction of 80% of checkout bags issued. It now has a monthly NPBD since June 2006, with almost double the number of participating retailers and participating outlets, compared to the start of the campaign.

Even though plastic bags do not pose a threat to the environment in Singapore, it is still wasteful to use plastic bags excessively. Singapore consumes 2.5 billion plastic bags a year, which is equivalent to 625 bags per person annually. That is why we launched the “Why waste plastic bags? Choose reusable bags!” campaign in February 2006. The campaign increased awareness among shoppers on the need to reduce wastage of plastic bags. However, the proportion of shoppers using reusable bags is still in the minority. Our survey conducted after the campaign shows that only 2% of shoppers bring their own bags.

“Through this campaign, we hope to see more shoppers bringing their own bags. Even though Bring Your Own Bag Day is only happening once a month, I sincerely hope that each of us do our part for the environment by bringing our own bag for all our shopping trips. It takes only a little effort and will become habit as a matter of time,” said Mr Lee Yuen Hee, Chief Executive Officer, National Environment Agency “Beyond plastic bags, I also hope that this campaign will encourage our people to think about how we can conserve our resources, be it electricity, water or other things we used in our daily life.”

Mr Howard Shaw, Executive Director, Singapore Environment Council added, “while some plastic bags are re-used to bag our rubbish at home, some end up as litter. Our volunteers are all too familiar with this when they go on beach-cleanups. Plastic bag litter can suffocate marine life. Moreover, though plastic bags have much to offer as a modern convenience, it can become a nuisance if we do not reduce wastage.”

“Millennia Institute not only supports environmental conservation by conducting a series of activities on campus during Earth Week (23 -27 April) but will involve all our PU1 students to be environmental activists during the launch of ‘Bring Your Own Bag Day’ on 18 April.  This is in line with our efforts to develop the instinct in our students that they can lead in bringing about change, which will improve the community and the world,” said Mr Tan Chor Pang, Principal, Millennia Institute.