PRA-Cebu aims to come up with one "green bag" design

CEBU, Philippines - The bid of the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA-Cebu) to come up with one “green bag” design for all retailer members, will soon be realized making Cebu the pioneering City to introduce massive promotion to eradicate the use of plastic shopping bags.

While there is a growing number of retail establishments creating their own “green bag” design, PRA-Cebu president Melanie Ng said that the group will introduce a unified design for green shopping bag, that may also give incentives to shoppers who will frequently use it.

“This is one of the best ways to encourage and educate shoppers to use recyclable shopping bags, instead of the conventional plastic-made bags. We know, it is hard to break a traditional lifestyle on this, but using a green bag is not just a trend, but a serious social responsibility,” Ng said.

The 110 PRA-Cebu members will soon convene on formulating the mechanics, design for the unified green bag product that will be given out to shoppers, including the mechanics of providing incentives for users.

According to Ng, if this will be realized soon, Cebu will be the first City in the Philippines to implement this marking retail players’ serious commitment in arresting the threat of environmental hazards.

“We can start with the bags. Later on, we will also promote the non-usage of plastic cups or massive campaign of recycling the plastic cups used by restaurants and café shops,” Ng said.

Although it is costly for retailers to provide recyclable shopping bags to customers, Ng said PRA-Cebu will make it a point that no additional cost will be passed on consumers.

At present, PRA-Cebu is talking with several manufacturers focusing on producing eco-bags to get a good deal.

“It has to be something durable and also affordable for retailers,” Ng said.

PRA-Cebu launched last year, its “Every Bag Counts” or EBC campaign to drum up awareness in using only recyclable shopping bags.

Providing a one-green-bag design for all members is one of the immediate projects of the group, to give convenience to consumers, doing away from accumulating several green bags at home.

This time, one green-bag will work for all retail outlets, although retail stores also have freedom to promote their own design of recyclable bags.

Chester Lim, chairman of PRA-Cebu “Every Bag Counts” program earlier announced that the group will start installing a bulk-buying effort among retail players in order to save on cost in promoting “green bag” campaign.

This will start the introduction of one-design green bag for all members.

Apparently, this time providing biodegradable shopping bags is more costly, than giving customers the traditional plastic bags.

However, Ng said if the 110 PRA members will be ordering from eco-bag suppliers by bulk, the group might be able to get a good deal.

PRA-Cebu is tagged as the most active retailers’ group in the Philippines promoting the green-retailing campaign.