Bangkok stores to set plastic bag fee

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Bangkok stores to set plastic bag fee 
Bangkok Post: 9 May 2010
Bags of Waste
A new campaign aims to lessen plastic bag waste

Starting on June 6, customers at most supermarkets and department stores in Bangkok will be asked to pay one baht for each plastic shopping bag - an object cashiers now give away free.

The charge - to be initiated for the first time in Thailand - is the result of a praiseworthy campaign launched by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) in conjunction with 25 major retailers and department stores in Bangkok, including Tesco Lotus, Big C, Carrefour and 7-Eleven, to name but a few.

Pornthep Techapaibul, the BMA's deputy governor, recently told the media that the BMA expects the campaign to reduce one million tonnes of carbon emissions annually. The BMA will save 650 million baht - the cost of garbage disposal the city paid last year just for disposing plastic shopping bags.

Bangkok consumers generate 1,800 tonnes of plastic shopping bags every day.

These plastic bags - made of high-density polyethylene - take 1,000 years to decompose.

This is a really good news.

Finally, Bangkok is following in the steps of many cities worldwide, by starting to use tax measures to change consumer behaviour.

Most of these campaigns have been successful. For example, in Ireland - which introduced a "Plas Tax" in 2002 - officials saw their consumption of plastic shopping bags reduce by 90% within one year.

"No Plastic Bag" day in Hong Kong - held on the first Tuesday of every month - has become a habit that helps reduce the amount of plastic bags used by 40% among participating stores.

The one-baht-per-plastic-bag idea is part of a campaign to push forward the draft of the packaging tax law for parliamentary approval.

The authorities have, since 2001, been trying to pass the packaging tax law to change consumer behaviour for the better.

Under this law, objects liable for taxation include glass, aluminium and plastic. The law also calls for consumers to pay a one-baht surplus for beer bottles and 80 satang for each plastic shopping bag with a handle. The bill was shot down by the Federation of Thai Industries, so now it is back on the shelf gathering dust.

But charging polluters money is not enough to combat against these plastic shopping bags.

A question remains about the "biodegradable" plastic shopping bags that are widely used in department stores and retail shops in Bangkok.

Bearing a biodegradable label, consumers - myself included - believe these bags will completely decompose, like withering plants.

However, experts on bio-plastic materials - such as Wolfgang Baltus, senior project manager at the Bangkok-based National Innovation Agency, and Ittipol Jangchud, lecturer at the Faculty of Science at the King Mongkut's Institute of Technology, Lat Krabang campus - reportedly challenge manufacturers to clarify the term "biodegradable" when used in reference to plastic bags.

Most plastic shopping bags used in department stores are made of oxo-biodegradable plastic, a petroleum-based plastic wih an additive that initiates degradation. Unlike bio-plastic that is made from plants, "oxos" needs two to five years to decompose, yet it still leaves fragments in the environment. Bio-plastic materials, on the other hand, take only six months to decompose, without leaving any residue in nature, but are twice as expensive.

Both of these experts have demanded the Thailand Bio-plastics Industry Association (TBIA) issue a standard of plastic shopping bags to make consumers aware.

The good news is that the TBIA has finished a draft of plastic decomposition standards and is in the process of submitting it to the Thai Industrial Standards Institute. So consumers will become more informed about the impact of the widely used plastic shopping bags.

The one-baht-for-one-shopping bag policy is only the first step of a long march. Apart from plastic bags, the BMA has other garbage to deal with.

At present, the amount of electronic waste - such as refrigerators, television sets and computers - has increased by 12% a year, alongside an increase of foam-styrene garbage, which accounts for the second largest amount of garbage in Bangkok.

Meanwhile, baby nappies - which, incidentally, take 400 years to decompose - is another emerging garbage problem, not to mention plastic water bottles.

We may not know how to deal with the burgeoning amounts of garbage. Yet, financial measures such as taxes and fees seem to be a practical start.

Each year the BMA spends about four to six billion baht disposing of the garbage produced by the private sector and consumers. The city, however, manages to raise only 400 million baht annually in garbage collection fees from residents. Without a legal incentive to reduce the use of plastic, people will continue to use - and abuse - plastic containers to their hearts' content.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/feature/environment/37064/bags-of-waste

[somchai]

Thanks, Farang. Thanks for introducing another one of your progressive ideals into our fair society. Plastic bags - akin to another deteriorating negative on Thai society {and quite unnecessary}, that is the madness of mindless consumption and accumulation. Thanks again.....