Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) has suggested supermarkets start charging consumers for plastic bags in order to discourage the excessive consumption of disposable bags, thus reducing CO2 emissions.

Singapore to charge shoppers for plastic bags in 2023 (Photo: https://www.straitstimes.com/)

Accordingly, consumers will likely have to pay between five and 10 cents for a disposable bag at supermarkets starting from 2023.

According to a 2018 study done by the non-profit Singapore Environment Council, shoppers took 820 million disposable carrier bags from supermarkets a year, an average of 146 bags a person.

The NEA said Singaporean households and businesses threw away about 200,000 tonnes of disposable plastics in both 2019 and 2020, enough to fill 400 Olympic-sized pools. An estimated two-thirds of the waste was disposable bags.

The Southeast Asian nation incinerates almost all of its non-recyclable waste, with the ash and some solid waste shipped to Pulau Semakau, a nearby manmade island. This landfill is estimated to be filled by 2035.

Source: VNA