 said today (27 Jan) that it seeks the public to provide feedback on their views of the charging){kind=link}
The National Environmental Agency (NEA) said today (27 Jan) that it seeks the public to provide feedback on their views of the charging of plastic bags which it plans to implement by the first half of 2023.
From Thursday, the public can provide their views on the proposal and whether it should also apply to orders online.
NEA’s views
NEA says that charging per bag is equitable and effective as the paid amount will be the same as the number of bags taken.
NEA also hopes to educate the public to reduce the number of bags taken by charging 5 to 10 cents per bag and yet at the same time not cost too much of an impact on shoppers who make bulk purchases and also the lower income families.
They also said that for online purchases, since the shopper have no control over how many bags are used and have no options in using their own reusable bags, no charge will be proposed.
There are also proposals for supermarket operators whose revenue annually is above a certain amount to disclose the number of bags issued out and the amount they collect from the bags and how they used the money.
More than 1,000 stakeholders were also consulted and supermarkets in other countries who also charged for plastic bags were also studied.
Studied similar countries
Countries such as Hong Kong, Netherlands and Taiwan had the consumption of plastic bags reduced drastically when the charging of bags came into place.
The percentage of the reduction was as high as 80 percent.
Singaporean household disposables
2/3 of disposables in 2019 and 2020 in Singapore by households were also plastic bags.
Shoppers also took about 820 million plastic bags per year and that is about 146 bags per person on average.
Members of the public can give their suggestions between Jan 27 and Feb 17 at this link.
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