Singaporeans asking for fewer plastic bags when grocery shopping

By May Wong, Channel NewsAsia
Posted: 07 November 2006 1647 hrs

SINGAPORE: NTUC FairPrice says Singaporeans are becoming more environmentally friendly, as many are asking for fewer plastic bags when grocery shopping.

This is good news as Singapore marks Clean and Green Week.

NTUC FairPrice has sold over 30,000 reusable bags since participating in a national campaign to encourage Singaporeans to cut down on the use of plastic bags.

The campaign was launched in February.

"Since the campaign started, some of them even bring styrofoam boxes or even cool bags to actually bag in their items. They even separate for us, telling us say to put all the chilled items into a certain bag, and all the grocery items or even the detergents in the recyclable bag," said Sng Li Hwei, Branch Manager, Bukit Timah Plaza NTUC.

For shoppers, many say they try to make sure the plastic bags don't go to waste.

NTUC said in the past, foreigners would be the ones asking for fewer plastic bags, bringing in their own bags to store their groceries.

However, Singaporeans are increasingly doing the same thing. Although this is a good sign, more can be done to raise awareness to encourage Singaporeans to go green.

For this year's Clean and Green Week, NTUC will participate in a new "Spot the Green Shoppers" contest organised by the National Environment Agency.

"For every shopper who gets spotted using the recycled bag, they'd be rewarded with a $10 FairPrice voucher. For this contest alone, we will be sponsoring $1,000 worth of FairPrice vouchers to reward customers who use recycled bags. In our daily trainings, staff have been trained to bag more items in a single bag; for customers who purchase smaller items such as newspaper or even canned drinks, the cashiers will make the initiative to ask customers whether they need a bag," added Ms Sng.

NTUC will conduct the contest at selected outlets over the Nov 18 and 19 weekend. - CNA /dt