No plastic bags from January

[Maeda Keiji]

Wednesday November 3, 2010

No plastic bags from January

GEORGE TOWN: Come Jan 1, plastic bags will be practically banned state-wide. The move – an extension of the current “No Plastic Bag Day” in shopping centres and hypermarkets on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays – means that no plastic bags can be used every day by almost all business sectors.

The ruling will cover all hypermarkets, supermarkets, departmental stores, pharmacies, fast food restaurants, nasi kandar outlets, convenience stores including petrol kiosks and chain stores. Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the move would reduce the state’s carbon footprint. “Mini markets and sole proprietorship businesses will have to adhere to the ruling on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in order to ensure the renewal of their licences.

“Previously, they only had to adhere to the ruling on Mondays,” he said when tabling the 2011 Budget at the state legislative assembly yesterday. Lim’s two paragraph announcement on the wide-ranging plastic ban was buried inside his 27-page budget speech, apparently catching many by surprise.

To promote the “No Plastic Bag Day” ruling, the state will distribute 500,000 brochures to create public awareness besides erecting educational billboards. On July 1, last year, Penang became the first state to implement a “No Plastic Bag Day” ruling in shopping complexes and hypermarkets every Monday, before it was extended to Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well from Jan 2.

From July 1, 2009 to Oct 28, a total of 32.5 million plastic bags were saved under this campaign. Shoppers who did not bring their own reusable bags were charged 20 sen for each plastic bag when making purchases. The money collected from the sale of plastic bags went to the “Partners Against Poverty” Special Fund to help the state’s hardcore poor.

 

[Maeda Keiji]

Guan Eng: Ban on plastic bags stays


Monday November 8, 2010

Guan Eng: Ban on plastic bags stays

By DERRICK VINESH and ANN TAN
[email protected]

BUTTERWORTH: Penang will press on with its decision to impose a statewide ban on plastic bags effective Jan 1, despite ridicule from some quarters that the action is brash and impossible to implement. “The people should look on the positive side of the move, which stood to benefit the future generation in the long run,” said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

He added that it was all right for the older generation to be angry with the state government for not providing them with plastic bags, so long as the future generation get to enjoy a better environment. Lim said this after attending Bagan Dalam assemblyman A. Tanasekharan’s Deepavali open house at the Dewan Datuk Haji Ahmad Badawi here yesterday. On Nov 2, Lim announced that plastic bags would be banned statewide from Jan 1.

The move, to reduce the state’s carbon footprint, is an extension of the current “No Plastic Bag Day” campaign in shopping centres and hypermarkets every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The ruling also covered departmental stores, pharmacies, fast food restaurants, nasi kandar outlets, convenience stores in petrol kiosks and chain stores.

On July 1, last year, Penang became the first state to implement the “No Plastic Bag” ruling in shopping complexes and hypermarkets. Lim said Penang was on its way to emerge as the first “green state” in the country, adding that they didn’t want future generations to blame them for causing the environment to be deluged with plastic bags.

Meanwhile, housewives are worried about running out of plastic bags to contain their rubbish when the ban starts. Melissa Nelson, 40, from Air Itam said she supported the ruling, but was worried that her supply of plastic bags, mainly used to pack rubbish, will run out. She added that her rubbish would not be collected if it was not placed in a plastic bag.

State Health, Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Comm-ittee chairman Phee Boon Poh, when asked about Nelson’s complaint, said her problem could be solved by reducing rubbish and minimising food wastage. “A woman called me up to ask what she was going to use to wrap her used sanitary pad. I told her to wrap it up in a newspaper instead.”

On whether the ruling would affect plastic bag manufacturers, Phee said they have the avenue to make thicker plastic bags with beautiful prints and sell them as shopping bags. “Such bags are now imported and sold at an average RM1 each. The local manufacturers can produce and sell the same bags at a fraction of the price,” he said.