Major Retailers Start Charging For Plastic Bags

[george]

Will plastic bag scheme help Phuket?

PHUKET CITY: -- Some said it could never happen, but starting on December 4 most of the island’s major retailers will begin charging customers for plastic bags.

Already on board with the project are Central, Big C, Tesco-Lotus, Makro, Supercheap and Jungceylon.

Starting on December 4, most major retailers on the island will begin charging customers one or two baht for plastic bags. It is hoped the charge will result in a significant drop in the amount of plastic that reaches the island’s incinerator at Saphan Hin.

Do you think this initiative will cut down significantly on the approximately 500 tonnes of garbage sent to the island’s incinerator every day?

Have your say in the latest Phuket Gazette Reader’s Poll by clicking here and casting your vote:

http://www.phuketgazette.net/poll/

-- Phuket Gazette 2009-11-16

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[neverdie]

A step in the right direction. Time to buy those cloth shopping bags people.

[karl]

May it catch on in other parts of the country as well. Great move!!!!

[madmitch]

Very good move. I hope it catches on and spreads throughout the country.

Unfortunately it doesn't include the worst givers of plastic, 7-Eleven, where you get a bag regardless of the size of your purchase, plastic bags inside plastic bags, a plastic straw if you buy a litre of milk etc.

[Viper]

About time too - sick of plastic bags and the smell of burning plastic by the beech from the local dumps!

[stevehaigh]

Very good move. I hope it catches on and spreads throughout the country.

Unfortunately it doesn't include the worst givers of plastic, 7-Eleven, where you get a bag regardless of the size of your purchase, plastic bags inside plastic bags, a plastic straw if you buy a litre of milk etc.

i think part of the staff training at 7/11it is that every customer has to leave with at least one bag. i sometimes take my stuff out of the bag and leave on the counter but many times they don't use it on another customer, they just throw it away!

[h90]

About time too - sick of plastic bags and the smell of burning plastic by the beech from the local dumps!

here they burn the plastic around the corner, a lot people complained but police can't do anything because it is between two areas and police does not know who is responsible.....

[tonititan]

That's great news! I really hope it works, and I wish more countries/cities would do this. As a person who moved from a "free plastic bag country" to a "pay for bags country" in the past, I can say that it definitely worked for me. I made it a habit to bring cloth bags to the store with me, or at least to reuse plastic bags I already had.

As madmitch pointed out, it would be great if 7-11 did the same. I was in there recently and bought a pack of gum. Before I could stop the guy, he had put my tiny pack of gum in a plastic bag. I often give the bags back, but the salespeople look really confused. I sometimes see them take my bag back and throw it in the trash can. So frustrating!

[glegolo]

Fantastic and very very positive move. Now we start in Thailand what we did for many centeryies ago in the west.

But hopefully it is not too late for Thailand and Asia. However the big ????? comes now.

Do we really think that Thai people are capable to change and start to realize that they are acually killing their own grandkids when dumping and throwing all plastic around the whole of Thailand.

What suprices me is that it is the big stores that do this and consider the enviroment, when in fact I was hoping that maybe the King and his family could take this step and informing and begging the people of Thailand, to start clean up and stop all garbagedumping everywhere.

Glegolo

Good luck Thailand...

[d0ndela]

This will require some heavy training of the Tesco employees.. It's not the customers who pack into bags, the Tesco employees love to pack a single item in each bag. Things already bagged (could be dog food, rice, washing detergent etc) they are especially of packing into a smaller useless bag with a Tesco logo on it.

[puyaidon]

Why not paper bags? Yes, I know it uses wood but at least it is biodegradable. You get paper in Central, The Mall, and Robinson's in certain counters.

In other countries, I have been asked, "paper or plastic?" I normally chose paper other than good for the environment.

Sounds like another way to gouge the customer, be he/she Thai or otherwise.

[thailandpeter2]

Very good move. I hope it catches on and spreads throughout the country.

Unfortunately it doesn't include the worst givers of plastic, 7-Eleven, where you get a bag regardless of the size of your purchase, plastic bags inside plastic bags, a plastic straw if you buy a litre of milk etc.

1.) the big retailers surely make a step into the right direction.

2.) whenever i buy something a 7/11 and it's only 1 or two items, i either tell them 'no big' or grab the items off the counter before they can give me any plastic bag... and if they give me straws i either tell them that i don't need any or just take them out of the bag (if i got one) and put them on the counter...

also, and this is currently in all the stores: where they do with one bag only, they give you three...

[Jonathanpattaya]

This is great news.

Let's hope it spreads to markets and convenience stores and also include polystyrene food boxes.

Plus, why not start an education drive to teach Thais how to dispose of refuse properly?

Edited November 16, 2009 by Jonathanpattaya

[horsewell]

I got a couple of cloth bags a year or so ago when Carrefour had them on special. Then they disappeared. Since then, every time I go, I use the cloth bags and am met with bewilderment with how to use the bags! They are easier to carry as you can load them up without the material cutting into the hands. I would say that the worst givers of plastic are the fruit and other street vendors. I use the plastic bags as rubbish bags, regardless of the size.

I may get some green cloth bags sent from Australia where I had 4 them. They are square with a slightly stiff plastic base. It was a lot better than Carrefour was selling.

Many times I don't think about or organise to take bags with me. It's a pain to carry a bag around with in the case I buy something!?! It looks like it isn't going to change much but people will end up complaining about the rising costs. It takes a lot of discipline to take the things, especially on a motorcycle, and then to take them inside the shop when you know that you will be making a problem at the checkout.

[mr_lob]

How will 7-11 cope? They love giving you a bag for your box of smokes, chocolate bar and oh yes the straws - ever noticed how if you buy a big bottle of water, they give you heaps of the bloody things?

They have alot to answer for.

The Thais should do their bit too - many a time have i seen them come out of 7-11 with their bag, only to throw it straight by the side of the road. Nice.

[sscsamui]

someone needs to talk to 7-11. they are one of the largest waster of plastic bags... they put every little thing in a plastic bag...

[microslack]

A great idea, hope it works as well as it does in Adelaide (oz) as since it's introduction nearly everybody takes the re-usable bags with them when shopping including chiller bags.

[happygirl]

A step in the right direction. Time to buy those cloth shopping bags people.

The biggest culprits for wasting and using more plastic bags than necessarry are Tesco Lotus and Big C. They are the people who should be made to cut down on the amount used. I shopped yesterday and 3 carriers were used where one would have done. This is regular. Stop the supermarkets over using before you charge the customer, but yes, I agree, cloth bags are much better, re- usable, and better for the enviroment. Stronger too.

[dominique355]

Half a step in the right direction, because there will still be plastic bags.

Now why not get rid of these plastic bags all together and sell paper bags, which are easily biodegradable?

We have started long time already to use re-usable textile bags.

[Hermanus]

The Best news in Years

Direct starting in the rest of the country toooooooooooooooooooooo

[chav]

A while ago they used to think we were daft by driving in the day time with lights on - now look at them, they are all at it. There could be a chance for the environment after all.

[Igor]

"7-Eleven, where you get a bag regardless of the size of your purchase, plastic bags inside plastic bags, a plastic straw if you buy a litre of milk etc."

I've heard this complaint before yet I have never had any trouble and I don't speak Thai. I just point to the cloth bag I carry with me and put up a palm and shake my head to the offer of drinking straws. Admittedly, I tend to shop at the same four or five 7-11s - so maybe they just know me.

Charging for plastic bags? Okay by me.

[nickjam]

[quote name='stevehaigh' post='3143496' date='2009-11-16 11:13:02'

i think part of the staff training at 7/11it is that every customer has to leave with at least one bag. i sometimes take my stuff out of the bag and leave on the counter but many times they don't use it on another customer, they just throw it away!

I've managed to train my local 7 Eleven staff not to give me a plastic bag anymore! A quick look from them, a shake of the head from me and I'm on my way minus the plastic. Check out the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or the even cooler sounding "Pacific Garbage Vortex" on Wikipedia. Scary and shameful (obviously not solely blaming 7 for this)

Has anyone tried to shame/put pressure on 7? I for one would join that cause.

[Chanok]

Fantastic news!

It's about time this country begins to cut down on it's waste.

Rubbish is everywhere. Plastic bags but also plastic bottles.

When will they start a recycle program for bottles of all materials?

[Drew345]

Just wanted to complain about 7/11 wasting plastic too, but about 10 people already said the same thing.

They usually get those straws in my bag before I think to stop them, so I just put in on the counter. I know it get's thrown away, but at least they might start to ask (foreigners at least) if we want a straw for our half gallon of milk and liter of coke.

[marsteele]

It is a great move...

[vicco]

This sounds like a great idea....and it should work......but it's not new by any means. Charging for plastic bags had been done for years in western countries. All the supermarkets in my home town in Canada started doing it and what actually happened was that most people just paid for the bags instead of getting them free....so the result was that the supermarkets got a new and very profitable product line. A few stalwarts use cloth bags for sure....but often forget to bring them when they go shopping...so after all the initial promotion dies down....its plastic as usual. If the Phuket stores charge 2 baht a bag....and a bag actually costs them 0.3 baht....they will have a bigger margin on the bags than on most of the other merchandise they sell.. The only way you will ever stop Thailand from being littered with plastic bags is to ban then altogether.....and what a shock that would be to the poor 7-11 staff..... [/b]

The other one of course is plastic bottles......wrapped in plastic....which is then put in plastic bags........double plastic bags... ..... plastic plastic everywhere....

and now we have to pay....

I do hope I'm wrong because I hate the bloody things............but that is what happened back home..........

[pontius]

Excellent! Please govt., introduce it in Bangkok and the rest of the country, too.

[realitymanagement]

Great news, lets hope it catches on.

[dude007]

Very good move. I hope it catches on and spreads throughout the country.

Unfortunately it doesn't include the worst givers of plastic, 7-Eleven, where you get a bag regardless of the size of your purchase, plastic bags inside plastic bags, a plastic straw if you buy a litre of milk etc.

You're right! 7-Eleven is the worse of the worse. They might give your money back in a plastic bag. I always refuse any plastic bag at all in 7-Eleven... so uneducated stupid staff over there...

Hope the money will be used for collecting old rubbish plastic bags along the roads or on the beaches, in the klongs, the gutters, drainage pipes, open fields, market places etc. But if this money again disappears in the pockets of the whole sale managers... to what (who's) benefit is it then?