Plastic bag: Brunei should lead, not follow

THERE is a growing drive to rid the world of plastic material, especially shopping bags; a drive which has been picking up momentum over the last few years. An estimated 500 billion plastic bags (down from about a trillion a few years ago) are used around the world annually and they represent a deadly menace to wildlife on land and sea especially as they could take up to thousand years to break down.

The drive to ban or charge for plastic bags has usually been initiated by municipalities and cities before central governments stepped in to make it nationwide. In this respect, the developing world has been making as broad a headway as the developed world.

In many cases, instead of introducing an outright ban, municipalities and cities have put a price tag on shopping bags, which till then have been given out free by shopping outlets, and the results have been overwhelming. For example, in Washington DC (United States), the imposition of a five cents tax on plastic bags saw the number given out drop from a monthly average of 22.5 million bags over 2009 to just three million in January this year. While reducing plastic waste drastically, the move generated about US$150,000 ($210,000) revenue that will be used to clean up the Anacostia River which flows through the city.

In the United States too, California is on its way to becoming the first state to ban the plastic shopping bag. By a vote of 41-27 the California Assembly passed a bill in June this year to prohibit grocery stores from distributing plastic bags from 2012. Shoppers who do not bring along a reusable shopping bag will be charged five cents for a paper bag made from partially recycled material.

Countries and cities that have issued a ban on plastic bags are: Germany, South Africa - outright ban (OB); Italy - OB 2010; Australia - OB in supermarkets, 2008; India - OB in area's including Mumbai; Somalia - OB; Botswana - OB; Philippines - OB (coming soon); Uganda - OB; Kenya - OB; Japan, Turkey, Zanzibar - OB; Eritrea - OB; Ethiopia - OB; Papua New Guinea - OB; Samoa - OB; South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, Bhutan, - OB; Malta China (extending the example of Hong Kong).

Among the countries or cities that are charging fees for plastic bags are: Belgium - effective July 1, 2007; Denmark - adopted in 1994; Germany - adopted in 2003; Hong Kong - effective July 2009; Irish Republic - effective March 2002; Italy - to be introduced in 2010; Netherlands - effective January 2008; Seattle, Toronto, Ontario - effective June 1, 2009; Washington, DC - adopted June 16, 2009; and Miri - adopted May 1, 2010.

There are many others that have not been listed here.

Even Bangkok, which has a plastic bag for every conceivable item, has taken measures to discourage the use of plastic bags. For the second year in a row the Bangkok Metropolitan Area launched a 45-day "No bag, No baht" campaign on June 5 (World Environment Day). The campaign has targeted a cutback of 4.4 million plastic bags based on an average of 600,000 bags a day by the city of nine million people. Consumers were offered a one baht discount (four cents) for every 100 baht purchased if they brought along their own reusable cloth bags.

Unfortunately, Brunei's first "No Plastic Day" on May 3 this year went largely unnoticed ("An inconvenient surprise on first No Plastic Day", The Brunei Times, May 4, 2010). Although lauding the move, many shoppers, reportedly were surprised and frustrated at being caught unawares. Shoppers who did not bring their own reusable cloth shopping bags had to pay 10-20 cents for a plastic shopping bag.

After helping initiate its lauded Heart of Borneo project to maintain Borneo's virgin forests and its move to introduce Marine Protected Areas to protect Brunei's coral reefs and creatures of the sea, the Sultanate should not become just a follower in this initiative to do away with harmful plastic bags. Nay, Brunei can even overtake the others and take its rightful place in the lead. The Brunei Times