Don't you think "bring your own bag" is a trivial solution? Do you know how effective “your own bag” can be?

On November 1, the government decided to require all the retailers to charge for plastic shopping bags from July 2020. Because of this, other clothing stores and general merchandise stores are also announcing measures to increase their charges one after another. We draw attention to the approach changing into paper shopping bag, which some clothing stores and general merchandise stores announced. It is certain that the consumption of plastic shopping bags will be reduced by paying. However, we can use them by paying, so there is no change in the number of shopping bags. (The number of using plastic bags is very large, and it is said that we consume 1 to 5 trillion plastic shopping bags in a year in the world. If 5 trillion plastic shopping bags are connected, the area is twice as large as France.)

Then, how about paper bags? Compared to chemical shopping bags that keep floating once they go out to the sea, it may be a good thing to use natural paper bags for protecting sea creatures. Because paper bags can turn into the nature. However, the raw material of paper is wood, and excessive changing into paper bags can lead to deforestation. In fact, some paper manufacturers are worried about paper shortages because they anticipate an increase in the number of companies that are turning into paper as removing plastic. Deforestation not only destroys ecosystems, but also degrades the living environment of people. We are living in a country that imports a lot of timber from overseas including Southeast Asia, so it is responsible for caring for the lives of local people. Using paper bags instead of plastic bags can reduce the impact on sea creatures, on the other hand using them can also pose other environmental problems.

Therefore, the effective approach is “using your own bag”. To use your own bag, we won’t get out garbage, and we can use it over and over again. We won’t need “shopping bags to take home” not only for shopping for food, but also for clothing and daily necessities if we have our own bag.