THE Housing and Local Government Ministry should go beyond its plan to ban plastic bags within a year and abolish all single-use plastics, the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) said.

In conjunction with World Environment Day today, CAP president S.M. Mohamed Idris said the ban should be on all single-use plastics, which are harmful to health and the environment.

“Plastics should completely be banned. Why just plastic bags? Go for all plastic items, including plastic forks and spoons that are non-degradable.

“In fact, the production of these items should be stopped,” he said at CAP’s office in Penang today.

He voiced support for new minister Zuraida Kamaruddin’s plan to ban plastic bags within a year, but said she should not stop there.

CAP will submit a letter to Zuraida tomorrow and is prepared to send a delegation to meet her, Mohamed added.

He said the reason for stopping production of plastics was to leave consumers with no other alternative but to use reusable items.

Half of consumer plastic items were meant for single-use, like bags, straws, water bottles, stirrers, cutlery and sachets.

Consumers would have to make major changes to their habits of asking for more plastics when shopping at markets or buying food and drinks, he added.

Developed countries have begun to phase out single-use plastic items, while African nations like Kenya, Mali, Cameroon, Tanzania and Ethiopia were imposing bans or charge taxes on plastic bag use.

In Malaysia, the average Malaysian uses 300 plastic bags annually, according to the Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association in 2016. Malaysians use nine billion plastic bags a year.

In Penang, the Pakatan Harapan state government tackled the state’s cleanliness issue by introducing a no plastic bag policy at supermarkets and hypermarkets in 2009. Shoppers who want plastic bags are charged 20 sen for each bag.

Idris said despite the policy, plastic bags were still given free to customers at many other businesses, like hawker stalls and wet markets in Penang. – June 5, 2018.