Let's Talk about Plastic Bags

Since I was little, I have been trained by my parents to reject plastic bags whenever we go shopping. As time went on, I developed it as a habit. I learned that a plastic shopping bag is used for just 12 minutes on average! I hate to see people chucking plastic bags away like it meant nothing. I could imagine what other things we can use it for. The obvious example, we can reuse it multiple times for the exact same thing which is to carry our shopping products. It hurts a lot more knowing that this happens regularly, every hour, and non stop. Roughly 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide annually. Every minute, more than one million bags are used. People nowadays have become too dependable on plastic bags and carrying your own bags looks odd. To prove that, less than 1% of plastic bags are recycled.

This unmindful behaviour in my opinion, is due to the fact that people have become lazy to think and act. Thinking about the environment makes you an overthinker. Acting up to save energy, ironically, consumes more energy to one self. Truthfully, this is not a new issue as this has become an awareness since decades ago. I have been to shopping malls and outlets, and even the counter at the cashier promotes “Go Green” or “Say No to Plastic Bags” but did anyone really say “no”? No! Reading these taglines are like a mantra that everybody memorises but have not really understood. We have eyes to read and ears to listen. Why didn’t it reach our hearts? Why didn't we try to understand?

Someone once asked my mother, “why bother to save so much? What can one person do to change the world?” She may be right. What can one person do? Will it change anything? Yes, the world goes on and people will keep on wasting things. However, I think her way of thinking is wrong. One person can do so much. If not the whole world, then let it be a whole person. Are we all not individuals that create a unit? We are the world! Let it be 0.00001% of contribution. If saving the use of plastics will reduce 0.00001% plastic consumption, so be it. Doing at least something, is the best thing we can do rather than not doing anything at all. It may take a long time for this message to reach others' conscience but I truly believe that Allah is the keeper of the hearts. If He says “Be”, then it will be. Let us do something for our beloved dying world to show that we care. It may take a long time to wait for the whole world to change but this is the least we can do. This is our effort for a green community and a healthy environment.

Written by:

Widad Shahirah binti Hairuddin