DROP THAT PLASTIC BAG OR PAY FOR IT
Charging customers for using plastic bags in supermarkets can help reduce consumption of these bags by the public and shops, an environmentalist has insisted.
Habiba Al Marashi, chairperson of the Emirates Environmental Agency, told Khaleej Times that stores and shops should offer customers a more sustainable alternative to plastic bags.
She said that plastic bags take hundreds of years to decompose and in the process, it releases harmful toxins into the soil and water.
“Charging for plastic bags is a good starting point for incentivising customers and supermarkets to slowly move away from reducing consumption of these bags. If a price is put on the use of a plastic bag, a number of people will not want to pay for it, or may consider reducing the number of bags they use. This will then lead to customers using reusable bags that have a lower environmental impact,” she said.
“As a result, markets will find less of an incentive to provide single-use or non-biodegradable plastic bags for customers. However, every policy requires a good mix of education and alternatives. Therefore, a policy such as this should be supplemented by stores and shops offering customers convenience by providing sustainable alternatives to plastic bags.”
She said that it may take some time for customers and businesses to get “used to” using sustainable bags during their shopping experience. “Once people begin getting accustomed to the idea that plastic bags don’t need to be part of their lives, markets will offer other options that may better serve their customers and reduce the environmental impact of single-use plastic,” Al Marashi said.
Incorrectly disposing of plastic bags can have “notable effects” on the environment, said Al Marashi, adding that dumping these bags in landfills is the leading cause to the world’s plastic pollution.
She said plastic bags, like many other plastics, do not degrade quickly, causing them to find their way into other parts of the ecosystem — especially marine life.
“Living on land, we may think that this massive scale of oceanic pollution may not be a big problem for us. But did you know that plastic toxins are finding a way back into our bodies through the fish we consume, and this is basically due to the widespread distribution of micro-plastics in aquatic bodies. Moreover, it was recently claimed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the World Economic Forum that there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.”