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Running for eight months and available in 11 stores, Tesco Malaysia’s Unforgettable Bag campaign is supporting World Earth Day. The campaign features re-usable shopping bags designed with one of three different endangered marine creatures on each. Embedded in each bag is a barcode that provides customers with an immediate discount every time they use the bag during the eight months the campaign is running. The company’s goal is to further reduce the amount of plastic bags given out by stores. Having halved the number already distributed over the past six years, the company wants to improve on that reduction and quickly.

The bags are made from recycled plastic and designed for extended re-use. Should a bag wear out, customers may replace it for free. The three animals featured on the bags are whales, turtles and fish, and bags cost MYR 0.5 each. They are available from 11 stores across Kuala Lumpur and Johor. Additionally, the rebate each customer receives when reusing a bag is MYR 0.2 per bag. The discount is available until 31 December 2018.

Small actions taken together are what add up to substantial behavioral and societal change. With climate change being a daily reality for communities across the globe, eco-focused campaigns are helping to solve local environmental problems. In Chile, a new program is recycling by turning used fishing nets into a popular game, helping reduce the numbers of one of the main contributors to ocean waste. In the United Kingdom, a luxury papermaker is collaborating with recyclers to produce high quality papers from recycled take-away cups. Once used, the paper fiber in the cups is separated from the polyethylene and used to create new bags and luxury papers. Furthermore, the polyethylene is sent to a processor to be recycled into products such as plastic tubing and cable wraps. What type of publicity would be helpful in encouraging the public to do even more recycling of different products?