The politics in a plastic bag
WWF-MALAYSIA has cautioned that Selangor Barisan Nasional’s promise to stop the 20 sen fee on plastic bags, currently imposed to discourage pollution, could harm the environment.
Selangor’s Barisan Nasional (BN) information chief Satim Diman said on Feb 18 that their manifesto included a promise to stop making shoppers pay for plastic bags if BN wins Selangor in the coming General Election.
Selangor BN chairman Tan Sri Noh Omar added that “it is a burden” for consumers in the state to pay 20 sen for each single-use plastic bag
WWF Malaysia’s chief executive Datuk Dr Dionysius S.K. Sharma said that while political parties have the right to make such promises, he hopes that the administrative system will do the right thing.
“We can see the world over how single use plastics have had terrible effects on nature and biodiversity,” he said.
“It is not about political parties. They can say anything, it is their prerogative. It is what governments, local, state and federal governments, do that matter. Any responsible government should solve this problem,” he added.
To safeguard the environment from the deluge of plastic waste, the Selangor State Government, from Jan 1, 2017, onwards, began imposing a 20 sen fee on each bag requested by shoppers with their purchases.
The state has also barred vendors from using polystyrene foam boxes to pack food; only biodegradable plastic boxes are allowed.
Selangor is currently ruled by a coalition of three political parties – PKR, DAP and PAS – which are in the Opposition at Federal level.
How harmful is plastic?
Plastic garbage goes far beyond damaging the scenic beauty of our towns, villages, rivers, waterfalls and beaches.
Animals, birds and fish who swallow plastic bags often suffer from blocked intestines – this leads to long, slow and painful deaths.
At particular risk are marine turtles, which often mistake plastic bags as their natural food of jellyfish. Many turtles have ended up literally starving to death as their stomachs are choked with plastic bags.
Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia recently determined that approximately 52% of the world’s sea turtles have eaten plastic, as reported in greenerideal.com.
Birds can mistake the bags for fish or nesting materials. If their legs or heads become entangled, it can prove fatal.
And, of course, we Malaysians know that plastic bags often clog up our drains and rivers, which then worsen flash floods (and traffic jams) during heavy rains.
Plastic bags take hundreds of years to break down or decompose. That’s why when they block drains, they must be cleaned up – and that costs taxpayer ringgit too.
Plastic bags consume finite resources, including oil, in their creation. According to some estimates, up to 100 million barrels of oil are needed to make the world’s plastic bags each year, as Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper notes. Yet, the typical usage of a plastic bag is just 20 minutes.
It’s beyond politics
However, Satim is now proposing that the Selangor State Government build its own plastic factory and give out free plastic bags.
Sharma said that Malaysia has signed up to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and we should thus play our part.
He pointed out that the BN-led Federal Government, through the Economic Planning Unit, is preparing a roadmap to achieve the SDGs, and local environmental NGOs – including WWF-Malaysia – have already been invited to contribute and provide input.
“We are on the right track already and must keep pushing forward on responsible environmental management decisions,” he said.
The issue actually transcends the political divide, as both BN and Opposition state governments are trying to deal with the impact of too many plastic bags.
Currently, both the Opposition-controlled states of Selangor and Penang, as well as the BN-led states of Johor, Melaka and the BN-controlled Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya have rules to discourage the overuse of plastic bags.