Commented On Opinion Page Letter Plastic Bags

To: Chief Editor Opinions Page, Borneo Bulletin? Of Brunei Times???? Address?? The Editor The Brunei Times, 3rd Floor, Wisma Haji Mohd. Taha, Jalan Gadong, Bandar Seri Begawan, BE4119, Negara Brunei Darussalam The Editor Borneo Bulletin, Locked bag No.2, MPC (Old Airpot Road), Berakas, Bandar Seri Begawan, BB3570, Negara Brunei Darussalam I am writing on behalf of my group concerning the overuse of plastic bags in Brunei. We are undergraduates studying at one of the higher institutes of education here. As part of our course we have been researching on the usagee of plastic bags in our country and are . It is a major community concerned from our view that there is an obvious about its overuse. According toIn a our quick survey s that we have conducted with 60 people in Brunei, we found that a person obtains at least 5-6 plastic bags per week. If we extrapolate this That is about 1750000 for the whole of the population of Brunei, we use 1750000 plastic bags for only just one week and approximately 90000000 plastic bags are used or obtained per year. ThisIt is a large sum number of plastic bags even if we half this amount.. Moreover, aAre we aware of what happens to these plastic bags? PPlastic bags cause a lot of problems in other countries for examp, le, such as flooding (in Bangladesh so much as to so thatwhich that now plastic bags are now banned in this country);, litter and harmingkilling marine animals in Australia many places aswhere plastic bags are they mistaken as food. On top of that plastic bags do not deteriorate fast and therefore remain stay a long time in our environment for a long time. Due to their lightness in weight, they are blown all over the palceplace and end up hanging on tree branches which is indeed cause an eyesore as well as in drains which eventually are cause blockedage.. it as food. From our survey respondents agreed that it was evidently shown that Bruneians see that plastic bags are overused and are thea main source form of litter in Brunei. Therefore, wWe would like to implore Our aim is not only to make Bruneians aware of these facts but also to reduce the usage of plastic bags in this country. TBut are we doing something about our plastic bag problems in Brunei? Our research showed that has found that there are a few successful ways of to get people to reducinge the plastic bag usage. Among them is to introduce ‘PlasTax’, where the consumer haves to pay a small fee for each plastic bag they useeach time they buy something at the counters. This was started implemented in Ireland in 2002 and where they were able to reduce their usage of plastic bags by 90% within one year??. We would like to suggest that Brunei implement this ‘PlasTax’ as soon as possible. We would also like to The government should also suggest people in Brunei to stop importing plastic bags.

Maybe this way can change Bruneians can change their way thinking and culture where instead of using plastic bags, and revert to they usinge their own carrier bags for shopping. We would reallywould really like to see In the future it is possible that the culture Bruneians would be more accepting to use reusable shopping bags instead of using plastic bags. in turn retailers can also save money. We would like to welcome the public’s opinion of the public on this issue and any government sector that is responsible with dealing with matters like tax to help our aim. We would also welcome any recycling centre that recycles these plastic bags to approach us so we can obtain further information. -

Plastic Power Rangers

Contact info: Nur Izyan binti Matassim B.Sc Education Student of PS3403 Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education Universiti Brunei Darussalam Email: [email protected] Phone: 673-8768045

Dk Farizah binti Pg Wahab B.Sc Education Student of PS3403 Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education Universiti Brunei Darussalam Email: [email protected] Phone: 673-8826894

You need to give your contact addresses etc. You should also be writing another letter at the same time to the appropriate government department to ask for the implementation of PlasTax You should also be contacting the various (all) the recycling companies to find out if the plastic bags are being recycled in Brunei Have you done this yet???? If you have ou can include the information here to inform people how to dispose of their plastic bags properly instead of use as rubbish bin liners etc.