The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said the majority of the public did not understand what items fall under this category.
It voiced concern that without a distinct definition of the term, items which appeared to be waste could end up in a circular economy instead because people did not know how to categorise them.
“That would be problematic. It becomes a product, and then the whole single-use notion will be gone,” WWF-Malaysia marine policy manager Shantini Guna Rajan said in a town hall session with Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin last night.
Shantini also called on the government to curb the continued entry of plastic products to the market. She said there was a need to influence future product designs to ensure that they would not just introduce new forms of single-use plastic.
“We keep saying we want to phase out and reduce plastic. But there are new products being created every day which have single-use plastic elements in them. Even your phone has plastic in it which may not be recyclable.”
Single-use plastic refers to disposable plastic that is used only once before being thrown away.
WWF-Malaysia climate change policies head Lavanya Rama Iyer agreed that the term could mean different things to different people, saying the government had to be specific.
“What exactly are these products? Do they include cling film, bottles and straws?”
She also urged the government to conduct a cost-benefit analysis to communicate to the public the benefits of scrapping single-use plastic.
During the session, Yeo said her ministry was working on how to eliminate the use of single-use plastic by 2030, with a roadmap on the plan to be announced in stages.
She said one suggestion was to introduce hydrocarbon-based plastic to plastic manufacturers to help them move away from producing single-use plastic products.
“The challenge for us is to raise public awareness on this,” she added.
Mareena Yahya Kerschot, who founded the #TakNakStraw movement, said the term “single-use plastic” might be confusing to the people.
“To reach out to the masses, including coffee shop operators and hawkers, maybe a simpler term like ‘plastik pakai buang’ could be used instead.
“The term ‘single-use plastic’ is quite a mouthful even for us, what more those who may not be English-educated,” she said.
Another representative from an NGO who did not wish to be named suggested a return to “the basics”, noting that many people grew up carrying food in their own containers and never using straws.
“Single-use plastic has become a convenience. It has spoilt us so much that even when we don’t need it, we use it anyway.
“Back then, we carried drinks in our own bottles but today, people prefer to buy and throw away.”
For that representative, it was all about making a change in habit.
“If you are determined enough, it only takes two weeks to set a new habit.
“I did an experiment on myself when I lived abroad. After two weeks, it was second nature for me to separate waste, recycle and become non-reliant on single-use plastic.”
Another NGO representative proposed that supermarkets gradually increase the charge for plastic bags to encourage shoppers to bring their own bags.
“Right now, the charge is RM0.20. People don’t mind paying that.
“The government should gradually increase this charge so that one day, the shoppers will refuse to pay for plastic bags and bring their own instead.”