Project I - Plastic Bags In Brunei

COMMUNITY PROBLEM SOLVING PROJECT

Project I: Plastic Bags in Brunei By students: Nur Izyan Matassim, Dk Farizah Pg Wahab, Zulkhair Abdullah and Mohammad Nordin Ramli Problems: Plastic bags are heavily used in Brunei for several reasons. They are mainly used at functions or events or to carry shopping. Plastic bags are readily available anywhere in Brunei and are very cheap and convenient to use, therefore people use them everyday and have become quite dependent on them and may overuse them. Plastic bags are nonbiodegradable and take a very long time to decay. This is a problem when they are not properly disposed of. Scattered plastic bags are unattractive and can cause suffocation or strangling of animals, especially marine animals. Plastic bags also add to landfill waste, taking up valuable space on landfill sites. The production of plastic bags requires a huge amount of energy and also uses up valuable non-renewable resources.

Figure 1 & 2. Some Plastic Bags rubbish scattered (Seen during Students’ observation) at Kg Rimba.

COMMUNITY PROBLEM SOLVING PROJECT

Figure 3. Some Plastic bags rubbish found in Pantai Tungku. Possible solutions: A Plastic tax could be introduced to increase the cost of plastic bags, thereby discouraging people from buying plastic bags. Public awareness of the problems caused by plastic bags and the improper disposal of plastic bags should be raised. People should be encouraged to use durable reusable shopping bags whenever they go shopping instead of using plastic bags to carry their shopping. Another possible solution is to ban the use of plastic bags in Brunei, although this is quite extreme.

Figure 4. Using reusable bags/shopping bags.

COMMUNITY PROBLEM SOLVING PROJECT

Actions taken: The project members wrote to relevant authorities and published an article in local newspapers to introduce the ideas of implementing a tax on plastic, encourage the use of reusable shopping bags, and discuss the possibility of banning plastic bags in Brunei. The project members appeared on a radio show to persuade public to use their own shopping bags whenever they go shopping and reduce the use of plastic bags. Project members themselves put their preaching into practice and tried using shopping bags at many supermarkets around Brunei to see whether it was reasonable to ask the same of the public.