Over 70% of shoppers support Bring Your Own Bag Day

By May Wong, Channel NewsAsia
06 June 2007

SINGAPORE: Over 70 percent of shoppers have supported the Bring Your Own Bag Day exercises so far.

Two of such exercises were held over the last two months and a total of 215 retail outlets are participating in the campaign.

The campaign designates the first Wednesday of every month as Bring Your Own Bag Day.

On this day, shoppers are encouraged to bring their own bags for their purchases. Those who do not wish to do so can choose to make a 10 cents donation for each plastic bag they need.

Some 100,000 reusable bags, sponsored by Keppel Corporation, are distributed for free at all NTUC FairPrice supermarkets, making Keppel the first private organisation to support the Bring Your Own Bag Day campaign.

Over 100 Keppel volunteers, known as Green Ambassadors, are also stationed at selected NTUC outlets to help customers bag their groceries.

On the whole, more people are seen bringing their own reusable bags when they shop for groceries.

Seah Kian Peng, Managing Director, NTUC FairPrice, said: "Some stores are reporting that 20 percent of the customers are starting to bring their own bags and some stores are reporting figures as high as 80 percent. I think these are all very encouraging signs and we need to build on this because we want to make this a part of our lifestyle."