No Plastic

Penang State Government announced recently that No-Plastic Day for Georgetown starting from 1st January 2009. Kudos.

It must be very braved of engaging the businesses to do that and to discipline the users to comply with. Nobody should complain except for the manufacturers of the plastic bag, I guess. The businesses albeit worried on competition should be happy as they are saving cost on purchasing the bag. The public especially the environmental conscious one is happy that something is done for conserving the environment. The Council is pleased that waste treatment is getting easier and life span for the waste disposal site can be prolonged.

This change is inevitable as we are facing tremendous pressure from global warming. CO2 emission and greenhouse gas and of course the escalating cost for waste treatment is getting serious now, and if we do not take any drastic action, we are in the losing side.

The question is what are we going to do during the 4 days that plastic bags are provided? Are they dare and willing to say NO to the businesses? Can businesses just say a big NO to customers for the whole week? Even without the plastic bag from businesses, are we started using other substitution? If we use paper bag, have we gave a thought on the food print for producing the paper bag as someone is claiming that food print for producing the paper bag is higher than the paper bag. Many questions need answers.

Whatever it is, it is a good start and sustainability is visible if support from all stakeholders are forth coming. I hope other States are doing it, and fast.