KF Seetoh on banning plastic bags: “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing”

Singapore — Food guru and advocate for all things hawker, KF Seetoh is through with plastic bags.

He won’t even bin them. Ban them, he says.

“Don’t be so shy la, wanna ban plastic bags and protect the environment, ban all the way”, he wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Apr 14).

Mr Seetoh, the founder of Makansutra, added that plastic bags should be banned from not only supermarkets.

“Wet markets, hawker centres, mamak shops etc.. ban it all”, he wrote.

His post comes after Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor said on April 10 that a charging model for disposable carrier bags at supermarkets is being worked on to cut the consumption of disposables.

In a speech in January, Dr Khor had explained why the Government had not charged a fee for disposable bags.

The reasons included the need for plastic bags to bag waste responsibly and hygienically, the stringent anti-littering measures here, and the cost impact on low-income households.

In his post, Mr Seetoh came up with a solution to the concerns raised.

“Dun worry about the poor not being able to afford plastic bags,” he wrote. “I am sure many will be happy to place them in bag donation boxes to help them out when they shop at supermarts. Also, i am sure you can afford to give any Singaporeans who wants it, a set of fabric or plastic reuseable bags on a regular basis…just like how you gave us all masks so often (thank you).. if you can suspend and forgive their HDB maintenance fees, i am sure you can give them a few green bags a year.”

He explained that the larger issue at hand was the environment, and not the price of plastic or fabric bags.

“The future generation will thank you”, he wrote.

Since 2019, NTUC FairPrice has imposed a plastic bag charge at 25 outlets.
The bags are charged at 20 cents per transaction at its supermarkets, and 10 cents per transaction at its convenience stores like Cheers. /TISG