MP SPEAKS | A ban on conventional plastic bags in favour of biodegradable and compostable plastics bags and food containers officially took effect in Kuala Lumpur in September 2017.

One year on, DBKL reveals that many fake and substandard biodegradable plastic bags are being widely used in the Federal Territories.

I note with great concern that the 100% biodegradable bags implementation has failed due to unethical manufacturers who mislead their buyers and businesses who take cheaper, dubious options to cut cost.

Equally worrying is the technique of using sense to smell and touch by the FT ministry to determine fake biodegradable bags. This method will not hold in the court of law and may cause DBKL to be sued instead.

This primitive sense technique is laughable. There are no empirical measures, totally dependant on the officers touch and feel and memory of what the standards are. It also gives rise to plenty opportunities for corruption.

Plastic bags may be the biggest villain to our mother earth. Even the so called 100% biodegradable plastic bags like those recommended by Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan to replace the use of plastic bags and with the price of four times more than the plastic bags, may not be 100% friendly to earth because it may contain up to 40% plastic ingredient.

The federal authorities under the new government has to come out with a convincing and universal approved solution to solve the ban of the use of plastic bags and not hastily embrace the commercially produced biodegradable plastic bags.

We have only this Earth to pass on to our children. We have to protect it from further harm.

LIM LIP ENG is Member of Parliament for Kepong.

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