Public Participation and Effectiveness of the no Plastic Bag Day Program in Malaysia

In 2011, Malaysia introduced the No Plastic Bag Day program to discourage the use of plastic bags for carrying items purchased from shopping stores. In the country, most of them use plastic bags as carrier bags. However, their excessive use leads to a large amount of plastic waste. Plastic waste takes a long time to degrade and contributes to air, water and soil pollution. Aimed at reducing the environmental degradation from improper disposal of used plastic bags, the No Plastic Bag Day program applies a “market” instrument to discourage consumers from using plastic bags to carry items purchased. In the program, participating stores do not give out plastic bags. They charge a levy of MYR0.20 (USD0.06) for each new plastic bag requested by customers during the program. This paper reports the findings of an observatory study conducted during the middle of 2013. The study aims to identify the level of consumer participation in the program and analyze the effectiveness of the program.