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SINGAPORE: Shoppers should be given discounts for bringing their own bags on any shopping day, so as to encourage more people to use their own bags when out shopping - this is the opinion of almost 80 percent of over 1,000 people who took part in a channelnewsasia.com poll in relation to BYOBD (Bring Your Own Bag Day).
A contributor to channelnewsasia.com's forum also thought discounts would be a good move, describing it as a win-win situation since the shops could transfer the savings from not giving plastic bags away back to the shoppers.
Another forum writer going by the name Haiyaya2 suggested that shoppers be allowed to carry home the shopping baskets, and be refunded a dollar or more when they return the baskets, much like how shopping carts are managed.
The BYOBD campaign kicked off on Wednesday, 18th April, which was Earth Day, and will see the first Wednesday of every month being BYOBD. The public response to the effort saw 100,000 plastic bags saved and just as much debate.
The week-long poll on channelnewsasia.com saw people equally divided on the option that retailers should remove all plastic bags (11 percent), and for reusable bags to be sent to each household (11 percent).
One forum poster who didn't support BYOBD said, "They presume that we will bring our own plastic bag to go shopping at their super mart, but very often I go to shop just after my work. Am I expected to bring along shopping bags to the office?"
Many also commented that plastic bags taken were often recycled anyway; being used to wrap rubbish before throwing them down the chute, thus these bags were not being wasted directly.
However, not everyone was opposed to the idea of BYOB day. Said Bbmars on the forum, "When I was in Korea a few years back, they were already paying for plastic bags... Our country is already behind in implementing this. It is a matter of getting used to bringing a bag with you."
Others called for a wider implementation of BYOB day to extend to wet markets as well, since the plastic bags used there are seldom recycled because they hold wet products.
Another suggestion on improving the BYOBD initiative was given by Alvin Nadal, who wrote into the forum with a suggestion for a wider selection of reuseable bags, as the current bag is not big enough for one week of grocery.
For those that did buy and use the reusable bags, there were no regrets taking the plunge. "I felt good about myself. Yes, it cost me 80 cents, but with this 80 cents... I did a good thing yesterday for this beautiful earth that we lived on, that supports and feed us," said Ms Chusan Koh.
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