to find out that Hong Kong and Guang Zhou
are charging the consumers for plastic bags!!
At 7-11 and Wellcome chain grocery stores in Hong Kong,
the cashiers asked for HKD0.50 for plastic carrier; and
in Guang Zhou, even at a humbly small deli grocery store,
they ask for RMB1 for plastic carrier!!
I was amazed by the environmental effort,
given my prejudice that
these highly populated cities would be like Singapore,
and can't be bothered to take these baby steps
to prevent plastic bags abuse.
-- I was wrong. Happily wrong tho' ;)
Singapore being a leader in East Asia, has a lot to catch up
in this perspective, definitely.
The experience being asked to pay for plastic carrier
was actually very impactful to me --
Everytime the cashiers asked me to pay for the plastic bags,
my brain started to work out a creative way to carry my goods;
and that broke my cyclical circuit thinking just about my ownself and
suddenly force that very "environment issue" into my day-to-day agenda.
Now that I am back in Singapore,
everytime I pay for my goods at the cashier
I am still naturally thinking how I can carry my stuff without a carrier.
Can't believe that
just a few cents of plastic bag lesson
could change my thinking pattern and habit!
As I write up this blog, my heart is yelling:
Singapore and Malaysia must implement compulsory plastic bag fee immediately!!!
Charge for plastic bags!
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}
Hi Kee Yew,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experiences at HK and China when comes to the simple items that we are so conditioned to our 'conveniences'.
I agree besides charging a fee to consumers for use of plastic carrier, the grocery shops has to do their part of cutting down on the order of disposable plastic suppliers as well.
It takes small step one at a time to make adjustments to these conveniences of our lifestyle habits.
Personally, i have been practising bringing along a reusable cloth bag.
My 2 cents worth
Alfred
jap_teck@yahoo.com.sg
Hi hi Alfred,
ReplyDeleteYeep. It will be more effective when multiple players to do it together.. like u said.. including the buyer, the grocer and the plastic supplier etc..
So it boils down to whether all of us are willing to work together to solve this plastic bag abuse issue :B
Nice day,
Kee Yew