Fri 28 Apr 2006
1 Singaporean uses 1.7 plastic bags per day
Posted by chingwi under all , text , sentient beings , environmentyesterday, i was queuing to pay for my groceries at a giant supermarket.
a family in front of me bought $254 worth of groceries. they oso took home more than 50 new plastic bags.
Singaporeans use more than 40 billion plastic shopping bags a year.
plastic bags are hazardous to manufacture and are said to take up to 1000 years to decompose. when burned, the polythene releases hydrogen cyanide gas, which is very hazardous. many marine animals die when they swallow or get entangled by the plastic bags.
if each family in Singapore were to use one less plastic bag a week, we can save 40 million plastic bags a year.
and you know, the family looks like a bunch of nice people. i cant help but feel heart pain. pain that nice people somehow are not thinking beyond their immediate responsibilities, pain that their children will oso grow up drawing out tens of new plastic bags each time they shop.
whose responsibility is it?
one’s own?
society’s?
parents’?
government’s?
dunno…
do u noe?
can u help?
April 30th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Hi, with regards to your comments, I totally agree. In other countries, somehow, the use of reuseable bags are more widespread. One good thing to take note is that in school we have projects to try to tackle this problem. So this situation is still not so hopeless yet.
Cheers
Ms Sophia Lim
May 1st, 2006 at 11:55 pm
yeah, sohpia
so glad schools are doing something.
wonder if it is worth a movement for schools or undergrads to take up - getting more to use reuseable bags.
altho local supermarts do hv some campaign and sale of reusable bags but they are rather low key, even if they made it into d newspaper
let’s continue to work on - for the sake of all beings and mother earth!
May 12th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Personally I will always bring an extra foldable bag with me wherever I go. So that I dont use so many plastic bags.