Plastic bags: A matter of who would be paying

Kim Khoo Guat Seok, Today Online Voices, 8 Oct 13;

I agree that “Free plastic bags from supermarkets do not go to waste” (Oct 5).

I have been reusing plastic bags from all my shopping, including groceries, for 40 years now, and so did my parents before that, mostly for use as trash bags, with the cleaner ones saved for packing household stuff.

Using a plastic bag is an effective and cheap method of disposing trash. Any other method of containing solid, semi-liquid or liquid trash may bring about more water usage, to clean up spills.

My sister, though, lives in a country where supermarkets and malls do not give out plastic bags on certain days of the week. She has to buy trash bags to make up the shortfall.

While the purpose is to reduce the use of plastic bags, in Singapore it is a matter of who would be paying for the bags, and this would be a bigger burden for the lower-income. The environmental crusade would be better served by educating and persuading the latter to reuse.

This is the way to really reduce wastage. Throwing away a plastic bag is inevitable after usage, so it is a matter of not discarding it prematurely for the sake of the environment.