Up to 6m plastic bags saved per year: FairPrice

The Straits Times; Published on Oct 13, 2011
Up to 6m plastic bags saved per year: FairPrice
WE THANK Ms Cheong Shu Min for her letter (''Bring Your Own Bag' scheme isn't working as it should'; last Saturday), and will consider her feedback with other inputs to improve our programmes.
FairPrice introduced the Green Rewards Scheme in 2007 to help reduce plastic bag wastage.

We are the first supermarket to reward customers with a rebate when they bring their own bags to pack grocery purchases at FairPrice on any day. Under this scheme, customers who bring their own bag to shop in our stores enjoy a 10-cent rebate for a minimum purchase of $10.
The continued support from our customers has yielded good results, with about five million to six million bags saved per year in the past two years.
On the suggestion of having separate counters where customers can pack their groceries into their own shopping bags, we have experimented in one store, but received much negative feedback.
Our current approach where cashiers assist to use the bags brought by customers have been widely accepted.
To further encourage the green bagging scheme, we started two dedicated 'BYOB checkout lanes' in our City Square outlet. We will consider including more such lanes in future in other stores, depending on customer response.
While we are seeing greater awareness among customers bringing their own bags, we acknowledge that it is a habit that will take time to nurture, and our cashiers are trained not to give out more bags than needed. We will continue to encourage customers to use reusable bags for shopping.
For example, this year, we initiated the second run of our FairPrice Cares! Campaign in support of Earth Day to encourage shoppers to use reusable grocery bags and recycle as well.
Koh Kok Sin
Chairman, Green Committee
NTUC FairPrice
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