I try to do my bit but its quite alarming how much plastic we use without being aware of it.
The sponge at your sink, the toothpaste tube, the shampoo bottles, cling film... the list is endless. Forget straws, there are a million other things that have made us slaves to plastic..
Our popular supermarket here, NTUC, used to take 0.10 cents off your bill if you brought your own bag, which i have been doing for quite awhile.. they stopped that a few months ago telling consumers that they were going to come up with a plan on reducing the use of plastic.... nothing so far.
I still take my own bags, I still don't use the small bags for vegetables, but just stick the price tags on the veg itself, but every other fruit and veg is in a plastic single use box.. I recycle, of course i do but we all know that the recycling is shipped off to another country where they do NOT recycle most of the plastic. Most of it cant be recycled anyway...
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| everything in plastic... |
So the fight shouldn't be just about plastic bags or straws alone, the fight should be about eliminating the plastic packaging too. there has to be a start, there has to be a universal effort in controlling the amount of plastic we produce and use use and perhaps creating plastic that can be recycled safely. Its also about us the consumers - we should stop throwing away things, stop buying cheap one time use plastic.
It seems like an insurmountable task, its about everyone getting involved...
In our office we have takeaway Tupperware, to help eliminate the single use plastic takeaway boxes. We grab those before we head off to get our lunch from the various hawker stalls....our enthusiasm for the project has waned but I aim to revive it for 2019...
My personal commitment will be to shop at smaller local markets where there is less packaging but I cant help wondering if one person can make a difference....
I still believe our government has to do more. We should be made to pay for plastic bags in supermarkets, 20 cents per bag. We should not be getting plastic bags when we order groceries online (even if they are biodegradable) and we should fine supermarkets when they package items like the picture above.
Small steps.... and then maybe consumers and businesses will be a bit more mindful before they make use of single use plastics.
It takes a nation to make a difference...
