GEORGE TOWN, July 1 — Consumers and supermarkets should support the state’s “Zero Plastic Bags” conservation campaign starting today as authorities will otherwise formalise the restrictions in law, said an official.

State welfare, caring society and environment committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said the state government would rather consumers and supermarkets adopt the campaign without coercion.

“Starting today, plastic bags will not be given out, not even for consumers to buy at 20 sen, on every Monday but this is not a law yet,” he said.

He said the state authorities will monitor the level of cooperation by the supermarkets and individuals in complying with this voluntarily.

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“We want people to do it from their own heart, to realise that this is for their own good but please don’t wait for us to come up with a by-law to force people to do this,” he said in a press conference after opening a dialogue session on “Say no to plastic straws and single use plastics” here this morning.

He issued the same reminder over Penang’s “Say no to plastic straws and single use plastics” campaign from January 1 this year.

Phee said compliance remained low and authorities could similarly introduce a by-law to restrict these if public response does not improve.

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He added that the state government would rather be consultative than authoritative when it comes to implementing environmental-friendly programmes that benefit the community as a whole.

The lawmaker said one example of low public participation was the dialogue session this morning, with fewer than half of 86 factory cafeteria operators invited attending.

“We hand-delivered the invitation to the dialogue session to each of the 86 factories in Penang island but only 36 turned up,” he said.

However, he said the state government was still prepared to listen to the absentees as it did not want to be confrontational in such matters.

Phee said the Penang Green Council will be conducting a three-month survey on the use of plastics and the “zero plastic bags on Mondays” campaign.

“We will conduct a public survey in cafes, coffee shops, in markets and we will get response from consumers and operators,” he said.

He said the results of the survey will then be presented by the Penang Green Council at an international conference.