No Mo' Plastic Baaags (Minnesotan accent)

*Image above: In order to promote irresponsible use of plastic bags, the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department designed this plastic bag*

The supermarket in Hong Kong, Park N' Shop, has discontinued giving out plastic bags to shoppers. Shoppers are encouraged to bring their own reusable bags. If shoppers forget to bring their own bags, they must purchase a reusable bag at a low cost of $0.50 HKG, which equals to $0.06 USD.

This is a great way to get people to get used to bringing their own bags as well as banning plastics. There's a penalty price of $0.50 HKG for not bringing your own bag but the penalty is affordable. Shoppers will slowly begin to acknowledge the importance of bringing their own bags because they are not going to want to pay extra every time they go grocery shopping and they are going to have a large build up at home of the reuseables they have purchased in the past.

In fact, lots of shops (clothing, food...) are giving out reusable bags instead of plastics and lots of places are charging for plastics bags. Those that are doing neither are at least asking their customers whether they brought their own bag or not. The first step of banning plastic is there, we just need to progress and we as shoppers need to remember one more thing before leaving the house, bring your reusable bag!