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The Malaysian Insider reported HERE that shoppers in Penang will be charged 20 sen for each plastic bag everyday from today, as the state government steps up its green campaign. The report said that the charge applies to all hypermarkets, supermarkets, departmental stores, pharmacies, fast food restaurants, nasi kandar chains and convenience stores, including those at petrol stations in the state.



However, mini markets and single-owned businesses will also have to comply with the state directive to stop giving out free plastic bags on three days in a week — namely Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays — when they apply to renew their licences. Only hawkers and market traders are excluded from the new rule.

CLICK HERE to read more details about this move.

Congratulations to the Penang state government for taking a very bold and unpopular step to implement the No Plastic day everyday beginning this year. Of course, such a move resulted in fierce backlash from the plastic manufacturers. The Malaysian Insider report said that together with BN and Gerakan, plastic manufacturers are distributing 180,000 free bags from this month. What a crying shame!! Instead of doing that, more should be distributing environment-friendly woven bags which we can all use instead of plastic bags. That would save everyone a lot of inconvenience and extra expenses. Is it really that hard and unpopular to conserve, reuse, recycle, and make an effort to save our environment?

Previously, CM Lim Guan Eng had remarked that the local councils spent RM57.6 million, nearly a third of its income in 2007, to deal with garbage disposal.

Many do not realize that the easiest way to destroy the environment is to do nothing. Any form of inactivity, apathy, and general avoidance may show one's irresponsibility in carrying out what we know is needed to preserve our environment!

Say goodbye to plastic bags! Let us love and care for our environment and also support the Penang CM's move. It does not take a lot of effort to carry woven bags with us when we shop. Such a move will go a long way to cut down council expenses and to help preserve the environment.

Allow me to share with you a short article by Whit Gibbons from University of Georgia called PLASTIC BAGS ARE DESTROYING THE ENVIRONMENT.

Excerpt from the article:

Do you know what sea turtles, Ireland, and grocery stores have in common? All have been dramatically influenced by the excessive use of plastic bags.

Remember a few years ago when we brought groceries home in a big brown paper sack? Today we stuff everything from bottles to fresh fruit into those little plastic bags with the carrying straps. We then use the bags at home to hold everything from cat litter to lunch for the office. We cannot live without these plastic bags, which we were told during the paper to plastic transition would be environmentally prudent. We must cut down trees to make the paper bags, and . . . I cannot really remember the rationale given for substituting plastic for paper, but the handy new plastic product seemed practical in many ways.

Well, today so many plastic bags have been produced throughout the world that if we filled one-tenth of them with pennies we could pay off the national debt. The most conservative estimate is that a half trillion plastic grocery bags are produced each year. This is a staggering figure that might lead to such statements as "if they were made into a blanket, they could cover the entire earth and still have enough to cover the moon." I do not know if that calculation is accurate, but I would not be surprised if it were true. The United States uses about one billion each year, more than 10 tons a day. For people who like to bring issues back to the practical side of U.S. dependency on foreign oil, more than 10 million barrels of oil are necessary to make enough plastic bags for the United States each year.

Where do the bags go and do they cause any harm? Imagine being a leatherback sea turtle, the most enormous turtle in the world. You eat jellyfish. And where do you find jellyfish? Floating on top of the ocean, whereupon you merely swim along with your mouth open when you find them. Unfortunately, a tasty jellyfish and a floating plastic bag do not look much different to a sea turtle, so thousands of bags are consumed each year. Numerous sea turtle deaths caused by digestive systems clogged with plastic bags have been documented in recent years. The same phenomenon extends to whales, sea gulls, and seals. Plastic bags are a poor diet for any animal.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ENTRY.

Say NO to plastic bags and let's do our bit to love and to save Mother Earth! Thanks!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!