After being away from this part of the world for nearly two years, I get a mild culture shock every time I go grocery shopping or just shopping for that matter. It’s crazy how Singaporeans just love handing out plastic bags. They do it by the boatload and for every little thing.
Yesterday, we did our grocery shopping at Carrefour Suntec and came back with not just groceries but at least ten to fifteen plastic bags for a variety of things. Instead of packing them all into a few bags, the girl at the cashiers pack one bag for a bottle of olive oil, one bag for Eva’s stroller fan, one bag for the few boxes of cheese we bought, one bag for the body wash and bottle of Listerine, one bag for the sushi, one bag for the meats, and well…you get the general idea.
Since settling in at our new place two weeks ago, we have accumulate piles and piles of plastic bags. I should snap a photo. What’s worse is that there are no recycling bins anywhere close by. We have about a dozen over aluminium cans, lots of cartons (from buying fans and Eva’s stuff) (I’d love a box cutter right now) and we don’t know what to do with them – short of being the typical annoying and inconsiderate litter bug and trashing it indiscriminately. We did get a yellow plastic bag placed on our doorstep for recycling (apparently, a company hands them out and collects them from our doorstep on a certain date and they take in things like glass bottles, cans, etc) but it’s hardly enough…
…compared to Neuchâtel, that is.
For starters, I’d love to see Singaporeans use less plastic bags. It saves people money, whether they believe it or not, especially shop owners. Plus, it’s better for the environment in the long run to spend $15.90 for a shopping trolley (that comes with a nice bag) then to carry around bags and bags of plastic. Yes, we bought one from Carrefour yesterday and started using it right away – even then, the cashier kept giving us bag after bag. We got stared at bewilderedly at the Comex 2009 IT Expo at Suntec yesterday for refusing to take a plastic bag from the people at Creative. I mean, why should we when Nil had an empty backpack and me a nearly empty diaper bag? It was the same at Borders last weekend when we said no thank you to a plastic bag. Of course, when I casually remarked that taking a bag was a waste, the girl smiled back at me but really, yesterday’s stare at Comex was enlightening. It was as if we were being told that not taking a bag was a sin.
Then of course, I’d like to see more than just ONE measly plastic bag being handed out to HDB residents for recycling. Maybe it’s different in other communities but the community at my place and in Hougang (where we were bunking in with a friend) is sorely lacking in recycling facilities. The nearest recycling bins are at least 15 to 20 minutes on foot and it’s just the size of a regular standard trashbin and not those huge containers like in Neuchâtel. Plus they only take the usuals – cans, bottles and newspapers. Cartons which ought to be separate are, well, “unavailable”.
Maybe some may say that I’m being too nitpicky – being new and all in this city/country – but seriously, investing in recycling is beneficial in the long run for any country and its people, especially one with limited space. Developing a more Earth-friendly attitude helps too…
These days I bring three different sizes of reusable bags whenever I go out, and will automatically hand the bags over to the cashier when I pay for my groceries or I’ll pack them myself. Or I’ll put those small items into my ‘giant’ bag. And one of our relatives collects all the recyclable items to sell them so we’ll just pass those items to her.
Nowadays you’ll see most of the shopping malls taking part in the efforts of making the world a better place by using less plastic bags, like Sunway Pyramid they even reward you with free parking on a certain day if you shop using your own bags. Or Jusco, Cold Storage in asking if you have a reusable bags or if you like to purchase one from them whenever you pay for your stuffs. In fact I feel using those bags is better than using plastic bags as the bags wont cut into your fingers whenever you buy lots of stuffs.
Mabel Reply:
September 14th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
*nods*
I actually use my diaper bag or a backpack when I’m grocery shopping here in Singapore, like I do in Switzerland. What I hate is when I remove the plastic bag and put it back OR refuse one, I get the whole “evil eye, black face” look from the cashier. =.=
You should have your bring along your own recycle beg. We should take initiative rather then waiting the cashier the reduce the no. of plastic bag when you purchase your gocery. This is your problem. You should not blaming Singapore.
Mabel Reply:
September 14th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Urm, I hate to correct you BUT I do bring my own bag. Do read my post carefully – I brought TWO bags of my own, started using a large bag I bought at Carrefour and yet was given tons of plastic bags even though I said no thank you. When I did, I was given a weird stare by the cashier. I don’t even expect HER to reduce it but for heaven’s sake, don’t stare at me like I did something wrong when I say no thank you to a plastic bag (what I did at COMEX and Borders) and give the bag back to you (which was what I did at Carrefour).
No offence to you or any Singaporean out there but I wasn’t blaming the country, merely sharing what can be improved and my “new” insight as a foreigner living here. Don’t know why people seem to think that an entry like this equals pinning the blame on a country. Gosh.
FYI, it’s the same thing in Malaysia. If I wrote an entry like this and replaced all the “Singaporean/Singapore”, would you still say that I’m blaming Malaysia instead of taking some initiative? (Kind of weird because I like to think that I *AM* taking some initiative.)
I hear ya, Mabel. I am so used to bringing my own bags to go shopping that I, too get a culture shock when it comes to (lack of) recycling availabilities in Malaysia. I thought S’pore would be better but I guess not eh? You know in Toronto, consumers are charged 5 cents per plastic bag if they would like to get one from the grocery store. They have not enforced it at all the stores, just the grocery/food stores at the moment. You’d think that this initiative would encourage ppl to bring their own bags, but some really don’t mind the 5 cents price tag per plastic bag. With that said, many companies have been giving out free reusable bags as their way to promote their stores… so the trend of using reusable bags are up.
My previous trip to Singapore gave me a culture shock. I was expecting they should be better in this recycling thing compare to Malaysia but to our horror, we can’t find any recycling bin at the flat. Back home, we can easily find recycling bins at many places, near supermarket, near housing estate, flats and so on. Ended up, we just threw the whole stack of maps we got into the rubbish bin. Thought if recycling it by throwing into the recycle bin but when we asked our cousin about it, he told us there’s no such bin -.-”