Reuse your bag, get a discount at Tesco in Malaysia

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British supermarket chain Tesco recently launched a reusable "unforgettable bag," aimed at reducing plastic waste and rewarding customers with a discount for doing so in Malaysia.

The barcoded bags, offers a discount of 20 Malaysian sen (.05 US dollars), every time a customer reuses it. The company has also offered to replace the bag, in case it gets torn or damaged. Plastics used for manufacturing the bags are recyclable and stronger than regular shopping bags.

“We have made bags a discount voucher, so that customers can’t forget to bring it with them to the store,” Graham Drew, Executive Creative Director of Grey Malaysia, Tesco’s strategic partner told CGTN.

The bag scanned by the checkout assistant will give the customers a 20 sen rebate on their total purchase to further encourage customers to reuse bags when they shop at Tesco stores.

The scheme has been launched to reduce single-use plastic bags that are tough to recycle. Globally, more than one trillion plastic bags are manufactured; a majority of them are single-use.

Recent studies estimate that the Malaysian customer throws away an average of 300 plastic bags a year – most of which end up in the oceans, choking the sea life.

In Malaysia, one consumer uses nearly 300 plastic bags in a year, a majority of them are made of single use plastic. /Tesco Graphic

According to United Nations Environment Program(UNEP), more than eight million tons of plastic are dumped in oceans annually. The massive marine litter contaminating the sea has forced more than 40 countries, including India and China, to enforce a ban on single-use plastic bags.

Paul Ritchie, CEO of Tesco Malaysia, maintained that the company has nearly halved the number of single-use plastic bags given out in stores between 2011 and 2017, but the rate of reduction is not fast enough.

“We hope that we’re able to accelerate the reduction of plastic bag use in our operations. Our aim is to further halve the number of plastic bags this year through the Unforgettable Bag campaign,” Ritchie said.

The Unforgettable Bag campaign launched on April 3 at 11 select stores in Kuala Lumpur will be extended to all Tesco stores nationwide from June 1. The company also maintained that it's chosen to use plastic for its "unforgettable bag," as "paper, non-woven, and cotton bags have larger carbon footprint compared to plastic bags.”

Last week, the UK proposed a deposit-return scheme for plastic bottles. Under the plan, customers have to deposit a fee for buying a packaged plastic bottle drink. The deposited money is returned to customers at the same time the bottle is returned. Businesses like Costa Coffee are also mulling refilling water bottles for free to reduce plastic waste.

The UK has already banned microplastics to control marine litter. Michael Gove, UK’s environment secretary, said, "We have already banned harmful microbeads and cut plastic bag use, and now we want to take action on plastic bottles to help clean up our oceans.

Changing consumer's behavior towards plastic bag reuse is crucial says Drew, the creative director behind the campaign. “We have designed barcodes in shape of fish, turtles to raise consumer awareness about ocean pollution,” he added.