Customers use plastic bags at Park 'n Shop yesterday. The supermarket will ask for HK$0.2 donation for each bag from today.Edmond Tang

Exhibiting a serious concern for environmental protection, Park 'n Shop, one of the biggest supermarket chains in the city, will stop giving out free plastic bags to customers from today unless requested, hoping to cut down the usage by 50 million a year.

A spokesperson for Park 'n Shop said in a press briefing that customers requiring plastic bags can ask for bio-degradable plastic bags from the cashier.

The supermarket will ask customers to donate HK$0.2 for each bio-degradable plastic bag given out for its environmental protection fund, though the donation is not compulsory.

"We will launch a series of shopping bags of different sizes and encourage our customers to bring their own bags while shopping," said the spokesperson. "We'll also use recycled paper for holiday gift's wrap."

Park 'n Shop foresees a 50 million drop in the number of plastic bags used next year. The supermarket should have saved 190 million plastic bags by 2009, the spokesperson added.

While Park 'n Shop noted that it hopes to take the lead in reduction of plastic bag use in local supermarket, Wellcome Supermarket chain said it has no plans of following suit at present.

"We have "no plastic bag days" every Tuesday and cash rebate for customers who do not require plastic bags," said the supermarket spokesperson. "We may consider increasing the number of "no plastic bag days" every month."

The move by Park 'n Shop has been well-received by local green groups. Michelle Au, environmental affairs officer of Friends of the Earth Hong Kong, supported the initiative as it could reduce the number of plastic bags used.

"It sets an example for retailers to implement similar campaign," said Au. "Customers should be careful about using the bio-degradable plastic bags, since the production and transport of such bags also have an environmental impact."

Au also cautioned that the public should not confuse bio-degradable plastic bags with regular ones and put the former into recycle bins, since they contain substances that could harm the recycling process.

Green Sense project officer Ho Ka-po also welcomed the initiative and described it as a "breakthrough", as it is proof that the public has realized the need for no-plastic-bag campaign.

Local shoppers, however, are less receptive of the environmental-friendly move by Park 'n Shop. Lisa Lo, a 20-year-old clerk living in Tai Hang, said the no-plastic-bag strategy would cause much inconvenience for customers.

"It'll be troublesome asking the cashier for those bio-degradable plastic bags every time you pay," said Lo. "It also makes you look very awkward, as if you're doing damage to the environment by wanting some shopping bags at all."

Chan Yuen-wa, a 47-year-old housewife who shops in Tin Hau, agreed that she would feel "stressed" asking for any plastic bags at all, especially when she did not want to make the donation.

"It doesn't make sense to me to pay extra for shopping bags, but it'd make you look cheap if you say no," said Chan. "Park 'n Shop should cut the prices of its products, if it expects to keep its customers."

Chan's sentiments were echoed by many other housewives in the area. Mrs Tsin, a regular shopper at Park 'n Shop, said she would go to another supermarket to avoid the extra expenses.

The decision by the supermarket chain is in line with the government's efforts to reduce the use of plastic bags. The government has proposed to impose a HK$0.5 tax on each plastic bag, bringing in an estimated HK$200 million of tax revenue every year.

The government predicts that the implementation of plastic bag tax will help reduce the use of plastic bags by 1.8 billion in Hong Kong per year, which stands at 12.5 per cent of current usage.

"The proposal will be submitted to LegCo at the end of this year," said a government spokesperson. "The legislation should hopefully be completed next year, so the tax can be implemented at the end of 2008 at the earliest."

(HK Edition 11/21/2007 page6)