Is it necessary to pay 10 cent for a plastic bag?

Article: Plastic bags are not the enemy by Andy Ho, The Straits Times May 12.

Is it necessary for the public to pay 10 cents for a plastic bag you use when shopping? It may seem ridiculous to some but this is done in hope to get consumers to cut down the use of plastic bags in Singapore. Besides Singapore, many other countries have their own practices in order to reduce the use of plastic bags. Some countries, like Ireland, paper bags are used instead of plastic bags. However, as stated in the article, the use of paper bags is even more environmental less friendly than using plastic bags. For example, two paper bags are used so as to prevent the paper bags from tearing. This resulted in more wastage and since paper is used, it means that using paper bag will cause an increase in demand for more wood, hence worsen the situation of deforestation.

It is also noted in the article that plastic bags are incinerated instead of being dumped off in the landfills. Hence, plastic bags do not pose a problem to Singapore in terms of taking up too much space to dispose them. However, we should not view the problem only in Singapore’s context. Singapore is not the only country that uses plastic bags. If we were to take into consideration of the usage of plastic bags around the world, we face a serious environmental problem. Other countries may not incinerate the used plastic bags; the plastic bags could be thrown into landfills and buried with other rubbish. Hence, by reducing the usage of plastic bags in Singapore, we may be contributing much to the environment.
So what to do without plastic bags? One may consider bringing their shopping bags when shopping since it is reusable and durable. It also helps to cut down the use of plastic bags and encouraging others to bring their shopping bags, as it becomes a norm.