Potential areas of concern
A. As a consumer, the total cost I incur will rise!Our response: The cost a consumer incurs may not rise, simply because the consumer can choose to change his/her consumption behaviour and not require a plastic bag on purchase. The change in consumer's behaviour is the very objective of this proposal. Should a consumer require 0 plastic bag, there is no additional costs incurred at all.
From the results of the pilot survey we conducted, we are aware that several of the respondents are concerned about potential inconveniences, such as the purchase of bulky and/or hot food items, or that carrying foodstuffs in reusable bags leave a stench. Again, the very purpose of this policy is to attempt to influence consumers' habits. For instance, it does not take much effort for a consumer to actually prepare plastic his or her own plastic bags, or alternatives like a reusable bag or a bag with bigger capacity. A consumer can just hold on to 1 or a few plastic bags, and he or she can utilise them for a long time before the need for another.
B. Will this taxation policy actually achieve the intended objective?
Our response: Based on the information we have, we see no reason to not try it out in NUS. That is why we will be monitoring the efficiency of this policy, and we welcome feedbacks from you as well. Only through putting our ideas together can we come up with a good and effective policy on our very own campus.
Our survey on 276 students in NUS has shown that 78.3% of the respondents are willing to forgo the use of plastic bags if it was to be charged at 10cents. Despite that 40% of the respondents is concerned about the effectiveness of this implementation
C. The "Rebate2Earth Fund" How is it going to be used?
Our response: Rest assured that the money collected will be put into good use. There will be a transparent accounting on the funds, and it will be reflected on our website so as to show how many plastic bags are being consumed. Any environment projects which use the funds will have to declare that it comes from the Rebate2Earth funds.
D.Recycling can fix this right?
- Wrong. Recycling has its place. However, it's not the complete solution.
- Recycling rates for plastic bags are extremely low. Only 1 to 3% of plastic bags end up getting recycled.
- In addition, economics of recycling plastic bags are not appealing. From the process of sorting, to the contamination of inks and the overall low quality of the plastic used in plastics bags, recyclers would much rather focus on recycling the vast quantities of more viable materials such as soda and milk bottles that can be recycled far more efficiently. If the economics don't work, recycling efforts don't work.
- For example, it costs $4,000 to process and recycle 1 ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold on the commodities market for $32 (Jared Blumenfeld, director of San Francisco's Department of the Environment as reported by Christian Science Monitor).
- Furthermore many bags collected for recycling never get recycled. A growing trend is to ship them to Third world countries like India and China which are rapidly becoming the dumping grounds for the Western world's glut of recyclables. Rather than being recycled they are cheaply incinerated under more lax environmental laws.
- Even if recycling rates of plastic bags increases dramatically, it doesn't solve other significant problems, such as the use of non-renewable resources and toxic chemicals in their original production, or the inevitable glut of bags that end up littering our environment where they eventually breakdown into tiny toxic bits.
