JEDDAH, 10 June — A fifth-grade class from the American International School in Riyadh recently launched a campaign to inform shoppers at Al-Aziziah Supermarket about the misuse of plastic bags and their environmental hazards.
It met with the approval of the shop manager, Toni Maloof.
The children designed posters containing information in English and Arabic about the dangers posed by plastic bags for wild creatures, dolphins and fish, birds and land mammals.
Many customers read the posters, but evidently did not think that the information was meant for their practical consideration.
Much to the frustration of the students, there was no change in the policy of handing out plastic bags at the supermarket as though there were no tomorrow.
Maloof told Arab News that he is concerned about the overuse of plastic bags and the negative impact they have on the environment. He also tries to educate his packers to put at least eight items in each bag.
However, the customers themselves often demand more bags. “In order to keep them as loyal customers, the packers just give in,” he said.
One shopper at the supermarket told this reporter how she started to reuse plastic bags and even took her own canvas bags to the supermarket.
“But I often found packers who tried to convince me that there’s so many plastic bags that I didn’t need to worry about using new ones. Soon I became known in certain shops as the ‘weird Westerner’. Not long ago, I went into a shop here in Jeddah — bringing of course my own bags — and the packer again tried to convince me that plastic bags are much more convenient.
He was from Bangladesh. When I reminded him of what happened in his own country, he stood up straight and said proudly: ‘Yes, Mam, you are right! OUR country is trying to take care of the environment’.”
Everyone coming to Saudi Arabia soon recognizes that as well as sand and sun, plastic bags are available in equal abundance.
You find them everywhere: in the desert, in the sea, by the Corniche, hanging from the trees, decorating barbed wire fences or just flying around in the wind.
Most are discarded shopping bags given out free by supermarkets and souqs.
An investigation by Arab News has revealed that Danube, Sawary and Aziziah supermarkets in Jeddah give away between 7,000 to 10,000 bags a day.
Hyperstores like Giant Stores and Watani use up between 20,000 and 30,000 bags a day — meaning between 10 and 12 million bags a year each. Adding to this is the 7,000-10,000 daily from medium range stores, of which there are about 40 in Jeddah.
This means that Jeddah’s stores give away a minimum 150 million bags every year, making 200,000 kg of disposed plastic. This does not include all the little compound shops, book stores, souqs, clothes stores and fast food restaurants, which together probably double that amount.
The product manager of Riyadh Plastics Factory told Arab News that in Saudi Arabia there are 600 tons of plastic bags produced and used every day — about 450 million bags a day.
Why is it that even if shoppers in the Kingdom buy only 10 small items they are given about five plastic bags?
Buy a box of eggs, some bread and a bottle of liquid soap, and the cashier will give you a bag for each item. Nobody thinks this at all unusual. Some supermarkets even encourage customers to take as many plastic bags as they can, as though it were a sales ploy.
Many countries in the West and so-called developing countries have addressed head-on the danger posed to the environment by the ubiquitous plastic bag.
They are not only a major cause of litter: they also take several years to decompose. A spokesman for the Science Oasis in Riyadh said: “Plastic bags made out of polyethylene take five years on land to biodegrade, and about 40 years if thrown into the sea”.
In 1973 the first commercial system for manufacturing plastic grocery bags became operational in the United States. After a short time, all supermarkets and department stores switched from paper bags to plastic bags. Yet it soon became clear that these plastic bags were an environmental hazard.
From 1990, a recycling program started in the US. Plastic bags are now returned to collection centers in supermarkets, and are made into products such as decks and benches, irrigation pipe, speed bumps and trash bags.
Ireland is the latest European country trying to reduce the use of plastic carrying bags by imposing a tax on it and forcing the supermarkets to charge the customer about 60 halala for each bag.
The republic’s Environment Minister Noel Dempsey has expressed his hope that the tax will “dramatically reduce the nuisance” and “our insatiable use of free plastic bags”.
England, with a consumption of 10 billion bags a year, is considering following the Irish example. Germany has for many years been charging customers for plastic bags.
Isn’t it time the Kingdom followed their example?
