COMMUNITY PROBLEM SOLVING PROJECT

Project I: Plastic Bags in Brunei

By students: Nur Izyan Matassim, Dk Farizah Pg Wahab, Zulkhair Abdullah and

Mohammad Nordin Ramli

Problems:
Plastic bags are heavily used in Brunei for several reasons. They are mainly used at
functions or events or to carry shopping. Plastic bags are readily available anywhere in
Brunei and are very cheap and convenient to use, therefore people use them everyday and
have become quite dependent on them and may overuse them. Plastic bags are non-
biodegradable and take a very long time to decay. This is a problem when they are not
properly disposed of. Scattered plastic bags are unattractive and can cause suffocation or
strangling of animals, especially marine animals. Plastic bags also add to landfill waste,
taking up valuable space on landfill sites. The production of plastic bags requires a huge
amount of energy and also uses up valuable non-renewable resources.

Figure 1 & 2. Some Plastic Bags rubbish scattered (Seen during Students’ observation) at
Kg Rimba.
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Figure 3. Some Plastic bags rubbish found in Pantai Tungku.

Possible solutions:
A Plastic tax could be introduced to increase the cost of plastic bags, thereby
discouraging people from buying plastic bags. Public awareness of the problems caused
by plastic bags and the improper disposal of plastic bags should be raised. People should
be encouraged to use durable reusable shopping bags whenever they go shopping instead
of using plastic bags to carry their shopping. Another possible solution is to ban the use
of plastic bags in Brunei, although this is quite extreme.

Figure 4. Using reusable bags/shopping bags.

 COMMUNITY PROBLEM SOLVING PROJECT

Actions taken:
The project members wrote to relevant authorities and published an article in local
newspapers to introduce the ideas of implementing a tax on plastic, encourage the use of
reusable shopping bags, and discuss the possibility of banning plastic bags in Brunei. The
project members appeared on a radio show to persuade public to use their own shopping
bags whenever they go shopping and reduce the use of plastic bags. Project members
themselves put their preaching into practice and tried using shopping bags at many
supermarkets around Brunei to see whether it was reasonable to ask the same of the
public.