No Plastic Bag Day is a campaign initiated by the Selangor government to begin in 2010 and led by Elizabeth Wong, the Selangor State Government as the executive council. Implementation was carried out until today and was taken over by the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) as a body responsible for the association. No Plastic Bag Day campaign which aims to cultivate a spirit of love for this land could serve as a daily habit and not just for the day Saturday for people across Malaysia.
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| Elizabeth Wong, Exco Kerajaan Negeri Selangor |
The campaign give an impact on the environment not only for now, but for future generations. If we were to Speed Mart 99 or any large supermarket, even though it is not a Saturday, a notice will be displayed at the point of the campaign. Here we can see that the government is aware and sensitive to this problem and began to take appropriate action. No Plastic Bag Day campaign so far is accompanied and supported by organizations and large supermarkets such as Giant, Tesco, 99 Speed Mart, 7-Eleven, Carrefour, TGV, Guardian, Watson and others.
About 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used around the world. This means more than a million plastic bags per minute, and the multi-billion would be a garbage bag. So what is worrying about the plastic? Plastic is a material made from a precious resource - oil. More plastics we use today, so our fuel up less in the future. While plastic bags are produced, a carcinogenic substance, namely benzene, is produced. Plastic bags can not be expunge from the earth. Even if we reduce the use of plastic bags and now, there are many plastic bags already accumulated.
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| The use of plastic bags in daily life |
In addition, Plastic bags belonging to one-use items. If burned, it releases carcinogens, a cancer-causing substance. If planted, in which toxins can enter our drinking water sources. Animals who think that plastic bags for food can die if eat that plastic bag. Besides plastic bags are causing, water diffusion occurs that causes flooding, and damage to soil fertility. Plastic bags belonging to one-use items to reproduce the trash. If we spend monthly shopping, we will wear it shopping or at least four plastic bags in various sizes. Jakarta produces about 6000 tonnes of garbage per day, more than half are non-organic garbage, especially plastics and paper.
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| Turtle thinks plastic bags are jellyfish |
In economic aspect, the recycling of plastic bags do not bring profit, the cost of recycling a ton of plastic bags is USD $ 4000 and the result can only USD $ 32 in the commodity markets. To produce plastic bags each year, 12 million barrels of oil is required. Added the current oil crisis occurred which resulted in the boom in prices of fuel oil (BBM). Reduction of plastic bags will reduce our dependency on oil from foreign countries. If we use reusable bags instead of plastic bags can be saved 6.
If only one of five people in Malaysia to adopt this habit, we can reduce the bag over the age of 110,822,400,000 of our lives. Several countries have banned the use of plastic bags. For example, China has banned free plastic bags gift. Consequently, China will save 37 million barrels of oil.
* Credit to Muhd Zulfazli Azim
