Save the Earth
DID YOU KNOW?
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820 million
supermarket plastic bags
are used in Singapore each year
=
The land area of
126 Gardens by the Bays
WHAT CAN I DO?
#BringYourOwnBag
When shopping for groceries or other products, bring your own shopping bags to avoid having to use plastic bags at shops.
A nice tote bag can actually be more durable than the average plastic bag, and even provide an aesthetic boost!
Our Challenge:
Go 1 week without plastic bags
WHY ARE SINGLE USE PLASTIC BAGS BAD?
If each person in Singapore uses 1.6 plastic bags a day, the country would guzzle enough petroleum in a year to drive 8,555 cars around the world.
It takes 37 million kg of crude oil and 12 million kg of natural gas to produce three billion plastic bags – the amount the Republic was already consumed in a year by 2011.
In Singapore, non-recyclable materials are incinerated, before being dumped at Pulau Semakau, an offshore island. With an increasing rate of plastic usage in Singapore, Pulau Semakau is now quickly filling up. The landfill was opened in 1999 and is expected to run out of space by 2035.
Besides the immediate land pollution implications, burning plastic waste is also a huge contributor to air pollution. Without the right measures, the incineration of plastic waste can result in harmful toxic gases being released into the air.
And this is only the case if the plastics are properly disposed of.
While most of us may be considerate enough to dispose of our plastic waste properly, it is inevitable that some of this plastic waste end up in our surrounding waters. This is extremely harmful to our beautiful marine life who may accidentally swallow the plastic or be caught in them, and this problem has since come back to haunt us.
WHY DONT WE JUST RECYCLE PLASTIC BAGS?
“Many of them just go into the incinerators, and worse, they end up in oceans."
Recycling companies typically recycle about 30 to 40 per cent of the bags it receives because the rest would be contaminated (food/oil etc.). Once it’s contaminated, they’re not able to do anything else because it deteriorates the quality of the pellets.
Credits: CNA Talking Point