The plastic bag from my neighbourhood supermarket has a message written in green and here is what it tells me, “Reuse, Reduce and Recycle” and in that fancy play of words and the smart alliteration of 3R’s, the intended message is completely lost. Now I do understand the message literally and yet as someone who noticed the message and pricked my conscience for buying that bag, the message barely spurred me into action.
It is like writing on a cigarette box, a request, “Let this be your last pack of cigarette” or “Do remember to quit after smoking this one”. Such insincere placation will never work as there will always be a next time to quit and always be another box waiting to be your last pack of cigarettes. Moreover, it will do nothing to reinforce the reason why you should quit smoking!
Back to the words on the plastic bags. Never mind their intended message, what I feel they are telling me is, “Here is your plastic bag, but do remember to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” next time (all with a happy feeling, a wide grin and no sense of urgency) and of course next time never comes. Worse still, for the more ignorant ones, such a message sounds like an advertising on a harmless plastic bag for a cause which is not directly related to their buying of that particular piece of plastic. (A stage of ignorance which all of us go through)
Instead, how about a statutory warning akin a cigarette pack?
“Warning: This piece of plastic you are buying is harmful to your beloved planet. Buy wisely”
“Remember to reuse this bag forever, as it cannot be trashed away ever”
“Do Think before Buying. What you bought will take forever to get decayed!”
There is an even more compelling reason for using this kind of intimidating messaging — the current trend of using “misleading” messages on plastic bags. Unfortunately examples are galore.
One of them is a “Thank You” message printed on the bag symbolic of gratitude in advance for proper disposal of the plastic. By declaring gratitude to the buyer it makes the awareness around plastics even more out of reach as it pushes the responsibility of the buyer to a later stage of “disposal” of plastic and not “buying” of plastic which are definitely intertwined problems. Responsible disposing of plastics will only stem from wider understanding of the plastic problem.
Yet another misleading messaging is the one that tells only half-truth around the use of bio-degradable plastics and other alternatives! One can hear all plastic problem awareness efforts fall down the window with a thud as these half-truths provide a wrong answer to curious souls seeking to understand plastic problem. In fact, such messaging is downright criminal.
Another kind of messaging which is meant to confuse the buyer takes the form of “50% recycled” bags (or some other %). It is good for the brand as they declare their commitment to recycling but even this half recycled bag is a problem and that truth is lost in the words. In a world where majority don’t know what plastic problem really is, using “recycling”, which is equally cryptic to a layman, wrongly reassures the buyer that nothing is wrong with using that “recycled” bag.
More such examples are out there and deserve a better research and thorough analysis to understand how a lot of messaging around the use of plastics is harming the cause. Even at their best the awareness efforts so far have only been subtle and time to subtle is running out.
Plastic has penetrated our lives in so many ways while many of us are still in early stages of awareness of its harmful impact.
Awareness has to spread like rapid fire and 3Rs need to become a way of life, a destination. Messaging has to match the urgency of the problem. The subtle kind has to be replaced with stronger, blunt, more in your face messages. Misleading advertisement has to stop. Let us not lose out the opportunity that messaging on plastic bags represent.
It is time to up the ante and time to get plastic bags also on our side in our fight against plastics!
