Two Plastic Bags and a Fishball Stick
November 9, 2009 by Eugene
Filed under People and Lifestyle, Singapore, Waste and Materials
This article is contributed by Trina Tan.
Ever had the experience of buying a piece of bread or bun from a small bakery store and had to throw away the plastic bag immediately after eating it? In Singapore, buying and eating takeaway snack food is very popular. Over the past few years, we have observed the boom of small stalls that populate the basement level of each shopping mall. Examples of these food and their stalls would include bread from Breadtalk, a stick of fishball or curry puff from Old Chang Kee, bubble tea from Sweet talk, doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts, etc.
Often, these great tasting food items are already wrapped with a piece of plastic sheet over it, but usually cashiers would still place these into a second plastic bag. Hearing this, you would think – is it necessary to have everything wrapped in plastic? Surely there are some food types that can be placed into paper bags? Three fishballs on a stick is not worth that many plastic bags.
However, it is not only this issue of too many plastic bags that worry me. It is the attitude of the people here in Singapore. I have witnessed countless people simply taking their food out of the second plastic bag and throwing the bag away the second they got their hand on their food item. It is horrifying to know that the second unnecessary plastic bag was used for merely under a minute and it would now lay somewhere for centuries. What a waste of energy to make and then discard it. What a waste of money! Think about how many people do this every day in Singapore, and multiply that by how many times per day per person. Now then multiply this number for the billions of people worldwide. I am sure that it would amount to something quite terrifying.
What can Singapore do to change the attitude of these people? As a nation, we have pledged to the world that we will fight climate change. Despite all the efforts the Singapore government is making, are their efforts and action inspiring the local people? To some yes, but the majority still do not understand the real importance of why humans need to change our lifestyle and habit.
Sure, there are stores out there in Singapore that try to discourage the use of plastic bags by charging an extra ten cents for its use. Is that working? Is ten cents enough to deter the use of plastic bags? In NTUC grocery chains, for each time you bring a recyclable bag to store your groceries, they take ten cents off your total bill. Again, do we really think ten cents would matter that much to the busy working people in Singapore?
The real question is – does Singapore have to resort to monetary measures to teach Singaporeans how to reduce and reuse plastic bags? If Singapore is really keen to go against the use of plastic bags, I believe it would not be so difficult. If the larger nations like America can practice this, so can a small nation like Singapore. Singapore has proven itself to be a law-abiding nation with disciplined and determined people, we can take a step higher and cut down our consumption of plastic bags.
The retail and F&B industry ought to revamp itself. Perhaps it is time for the Singapore Retail Association (SRA), the Food & Beverage Manager’s Association of Singapore (F&BMA) and the Restaurant Association of Singapore (RAS) to collaborate and work out a plan to re-package their goods. This together with education would take Singapore a notch up towards being an eco-friendlier nation.
The next time you buy something, ask yourself if you really need that plastic bag. I always turn down the plastic bag even after the cashier has already placed my items into it. More often than usual, you would be surprised that the cashier would be very willing to take the items back out of the plastic bag and a soft “thank you” can be heard.
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Dear Eugene
I love the article written by Trina Tan & would like to seek your permission if I could re-published it in my company’s article. Look forward to hear from you.
Best Regards