I am not willing. Are you?

Our government came out with a proposal to reduce the use of plastic bags. Charge for every plastic bag you take for your grocery. While it looks like a good initiative, it is not.

The most straightforward way to do it is to ban the use of plastic bags. That will eliminate the entire problem of plastic bag usage in supermarkets. But for some reason, this is never considered.

Of course, I am not saying that supermarkets should not give out bags for our purchases. We need the bags to carry our purchases home. What I am saying is that banning plastic bags will force the supermarkets to think of alternatives, like using biodegradable bags instead.

This will increase the cost for supermarkets, no doubt because biodegradable bags are more costly. This will make supermarkets change their policies and ration on the use of biodegradable bags. Problem solved. No plastic bags and lesser biodegradable bags.

But if banning plastic bags is not feasible for whatever issues, and consumers like us need to pay for it, I choose to pay the 5 or 10 cents for biodegradable bags, not plastic bags.

Reducing the use of plastic bags does not solve the core problem. Changing the solution does.

This problem is very similar to the problem faced by managers and executives who try to prepare their Excel reports faster by using more shortcuts, when the real solution is to change the way they prepare their reports. If you are currently trying to prepare your Excel report faster, why not drop us a message to find out what the real solution to your problem is?