Sustainability issues with plastic bag
Sustainability Issues with Plastic Bags
A plastic bag is used for 5minutes on average but requires more than a thousand years for it to decompose (Sharma,2008). After decomposition, the tiny particles continue to contaminate our water sources and threaten wildlife (West, n.d.). Yet, the global usage of plastic bags hits an unprecedented annual rate of 1 trillion (Facts,n.d.), with Singapore contributing 3 billion in 2011(Tay,2012). Hence, it is vital that we pay more attention to our environment by reducing this excessive usage. This paper seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of plastic bags levy in Singapore, how to implement it and other alternatives to resolve excessive plastic bags usage.
Plastic bags levy has proven its worthiness in some countries. Since Ireland implemented a “Plastax” in 2002 to charge 15 Euro cents tax per plastic carrier, it successfully reduced plastic usage by 90% (Convery & McDonnell & Ferreira, 2007). The levy was targeted at changing consumer’s behavior and charged at a right amount to stimulate consumers in bringing their own reusable bags when shopping to evade paying tax. However, we should note that the use of product tax (plastic bag levy) will affect consumer’s behavior to a large extent and gaining stakeholders’ acceptance is crucial to its successful implementation. Having a series of extensive consultation with the affected stakeholders is central to its acceptance. Therefore, jurisdictions that wish to implement this policy need to take note of these factors that will affect the effectiveness of the levy.
Next, we assess how stakeholders respond to the idea of levy in Singapore. In particular, retail sectors reflect a lack of motivation to implement a levy (Lee, 2012). Many retailers are adopting the “wait and see” attitude when it comes to this debatable topic of implementing the levy. They fear losing their customers to competitors that do not charge a levy. This was evident in a case involving a major supermarket chain
A plastic bag is used for 5minutes on average but requires more than a thousand years for it to decompose (Sharma,2008). After decomposition, the tiny particles continue to contaminate our water sources and threaten wildlife (West, n.d.). Yet, the global usage of plastic bags hits an unprecedented annual rate of 1 trillion (Facts,n.d.), with Singapore contributing 3 billion in 2011(Tay,2012). Hence, it is vital that we pay more attention to our environment by reducing this excessive usage. This paper seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of plastic bags levy in Singapore, how to implement it and other alternatives to resolve excessive plastic bags usage.
Plastic bags levy has proven its worthiness in some countries. Since Ireland implemented a “Plastax” in 2002 to charge 15 Euro cents tax per plastic carrier, it successfully reduced plastic usage by 90% (Convery & McDonnell & Ferreira, 2007). The levy was targeted at changing consumer’s behavior and charged at a right amount to stimulate consumers in bringing their own reusable bags when shopping to evade paying tax. However, we should note that the use of product tax (plastic bag levy) will affect consumer’s behavior to a large extent and gaining stakeholders’ acceptance is crucial to its successful implementation. Having a series of extensive consultation with the affected stakeholders is central to its acceptance. Therefore, jurisdictions that wish to implement this policy need to take note of these factors that will affect the effectiveness of the levy.
Next, we assess how stakeholders respond to the idea of levy in Singapore. In particular, retail sectors reflect a lack of motivation to implement a levy (Lee, 2012). Many retailers are adopting the “wait and see” attitude when it comes to this debatable topic of implementing the levy. They fear losing their customers to competitors that do not charge a levy. This was evident in a case involving a major supermarket chain