KUALA LUMPUR: Despite the government's plan to ban the use of plastic bags across all business sectors nationwide by 2025, stronger measures to educate the public were imperative to realise the ban.
Experts believe that a thorough and well-executed plan must be established by the government to ensure the effective execution of the ban.
They also pointed out that there will be little to no impact on the government's aim as the awareness surrounding the plastic bags ban is still considered weak in Malaysia.
EcoKnights vice president Amlir Ayat said while the government had introduced several policies and incentives to combat plastic pollution in the country, the execution of the plan remained a key challenge.
This, he said, was due to 525,000 tonnes of plastic waste generated by Malaysia in 2019, ranking it the eighth-worst country in the world for plastic waste.
"A World Wide Fund for Nature report also shows that Malaysia used 148,000 metric tonnes of plastic food packaging alone in 2020.
"Hence, the public needs to know how the government plans to execute the implementation of the ban on the retail industry, which has 150,482 establishments operating in Malaysia as per the Department of Statistics.
"The government needs to ensure the effective implementation of this plan and work towards making Malaysia a more sustainable and eco-friendly nation," he said.
Yesterday, the government announced its aim towards the "zero use" of plastic bags for retail and commerce purposes nationwide by the year 2025.
Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said the implementation of the ban would be carried out in phases, with fixed premises before shifting in stages to business premises including roadside shops and stalls.
He said four states, namely Selangor, Penang, Johor and Negri Sembilan had already implemented the zero use of plastic bag campaign.
Meanwhile, Amlir said a stronger stance by the government as well as transparency must be placed to track the campaign and its impacts on the environment.
"We have heard of many campaigns launched in the past and at the end of the day, it only focuses on charging consumers who still want to use disposable plastic bags."
Echoing Amlir, ecologist and Malaysia Nature Society president Professor Dr Ahmad Ismail said stronger and more combative campaigns involving government officials and the public were needed to be a zero-use plastic bag nation by 2025.
He added that a lack of effort towards campaigns and education towards the subject would hinder Malaysia's Roadmap Towards Zero Single-use Plastics 2018-2030.
"I have been campaigning for 10 years, which is a great challenge. We need a more aggressive campaign for the banning of plastic bags, including the involvement of university students and school children.
"This involves the understanding of why single-use plastic among the public cannot be done and why plastic bags, plastic bottles and other single-use plastic are becoming a habit and part of our lifestyle
"It is also important to make it a practice at the workplace and home."
Meanwhile, environmentalist Anthony Tan highlighted that even though the ban would minimise the use of plastic bags in the nation, it would also impact the manufacturing of plastic bags in the country.
"I believe that the ban will minimise the use of plastic bags. However, will the government stop our manufacturers from exporting Malaysian-made plastic bags to other countries?" he said.