SINGAPORE: How many times have you been offered a cotton tote bag, only for you to have no choice but to begrudgingly accept? There’s a high chance every household will have several of these tote bags sitting around, collecting dust.
Researchers said that we’d have to use these reusable cotton bags hundreds of times before they become the better choice over single-use alternatives. Second, cotton totes usually have prints on them. These use PVC dyes which are not easily biodegradable, rendering them effectively unrecyclable. And even when plastic is “recycled”, it often means that the toxic waste is exported to poorer countries that don’t have the proper infrastructure to manage it, but who buy it anyway to bring in more income.
It is an easy tick in the sustainability box without having to substantively change operations and product lines to actually reduce waste.In 2019, H&M joined other major retailers in charging 10 cents for each shopping bag across Singapore stores, to encourage customers to bring their own reusable bagsH&M said it reached its 2020 goal of using 100 per cent sustainably sourced cotton, defined as organic, recycled or sourced through global non-profit Better Cotton Initiative.
Many of us work in companies or go to schools that do make unwanted tote bags. Tell whichever department or group that’s making them to do something else with their budget instead.Perhaps they could donate the money budgeted for the bags to a climate justice organisation in Singapore or Southeast Asia.
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