Over 90% of customers bring own bags after mandatory 5-cent charge for plastic bags: NEA survey
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In July 2023, supermarket operators with an annual turnover of more than $100 million began charging at least five cents per disposable carrier bag.
ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
SINGAPORE – More than 90 per cent of customers have brought their own reusable bags for grocery shopping since the minimum five-cent charge for disposable bags at supermarket chains was implemented more than a year ago
This is an “encouraging” change, up from 61 per cent who brought their own bags before the disposable carrier bag charge was made mandatory at larger supermarket operators, said Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor on Aug 30 at the opening of a new FairPrice outlet at City Square Mall.
In addition, supermarket operators have reported a 70 per cent to 80 per cent drop
FairPrice saw a reduction of about 77 per cent in the number of disposable carrier bags it issued. In the second half of 2023, FairPrice provided about 142 million fewer disposable carrier bags, compared with the same period in 2022.
The new supermarket at City Square Mall is the FairPrice Group’s flagship outlet for environmentally conscious store design. Its shopping carts and trolleys are made from recycled plastics, and its refrigerators use carbon-dioxide refrigerants, which are said to be an eco-friendly alternative to the more traditional fluorocarbon refrigerants.
The store also features more than 400 sustainable products, from responsibly made household staples like dishwashing liquid and paper products to a wide variety of items with reduced packaging.
To reduce single-use packaging, the store also offers shoppers the option of refilling bottles of household cleaning liquids instead of purchasing new ones.
In the NEA survey of around 1,000 people, the number of disposable carrier bags that respondents said they needed went down from three to one per supermarket visit on average.
Dr Khor said: “Some respondents shared that they still needed to purchase disposable carrier bags to carry their purchases, generally because they did not have sufficient reusable bags with them, or they preferred to bag wet produce separately.”
A private tutor, who wanted to be known only as Daphne, said that while she initially did not mind paying the plastic bag charge, it was her mother-in-law who encouraged her to save money and be more environmentally friendly.
“I shop for a family of six, so the amount of plastic bags I need, especially for bulky groceries like milk powder, can add up. I’ve started using shopping trolleys and even reusable bags from Ikea instead,” she said.
In July 2023, supermarket operators with an annual turnover of more than $100 million began charging at least five cents per disposable carrier bag. These chains include NTUC FairPrice, Cold Storage, Giant, Sheng Siong and Prime Supermarket.
In January, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said that large supermarket operators saw around a 50 per cent to 80 per cent drop in the number of disposable carrier bags used by consumers, in response to a parliamentary question on the impact of the mandatory charge.
The NEA survey also found that beyond reducing the number of disposable bags used, the disposable bag charge has nudged more than a third of respondents to use single-use disposables and plastics less than before.
“This demonstrates a promising shift towards a more sustainable mindset and behaviour among our shoppers. We should continue to encourage and educate consumers to use less disposables and use more reusables,” said Dr Khor.
