IKEA to stop disposable plastic bags in Singapore

Published On March 17, 2013

IKEA announced that it will stop selling plastic disposable shopping bags in its stores in Singapore, from 23 March, 2013.

IKEA first announced six years ago that disposable plastic bags would be supplied for a charge, with the proceeds from the sales donated to fund eco-education programs run by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).  Since then, it has donated close to S$550,000 to support conservation programmes.  The money was raised from 18 million pieces of plastic bags that were saved during the period.

From 2013 with the cost savings from eliminating disposable plastic bags, IKEA Singapore is pledging a further $200,000 to WWF Singapore to fund its co-education programmes.

Mr. Christian Rojkjaer, Managing Director of Ikano Retail Asia, said, “This initiative is the next natural step for us to further reduce the use and consumption of disposable plastic bags in Singapore and at the same time support change in people’s everyday behaviour for a positive sustainable impact on the environment.”

Around 2.5 billion plastic shopping bags are used every year which amounts to 2500 bags per family per year or seven bags a day.  If each family uses one less, Singapore could save 50 million bags each year.

Mr. Rojkjaer added that IKEA was very encouraged by the broad cross section of endorsers from the Singapore public and private sectors, for its plan to ban disposable plastic bags, saying that the broad and willing acceptance and support from customers from when IKEA started charging for plastic bags in 2007, to now, is an affirmation of its belief that the people living in Singapore, act rational and are reasonable, mature and sensible and they should get more credit for it.

Source:
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/New%2BMarket/Story/A1Story20130128-398407.html