If you noticed the plastic bags at your regular NTUC FairPrice outlet looking different, it’s not your eyes deceiving you.
It seems that FairPrice is in the midst of replacing its white shopping bags with environmentally-friendly grey ones.
These plastic bags are available at multiple branches — including Toa Payoh HDB Hub and Toa Payoh Lorong 4 — at five cents each, a check by AsiaOne showed.
The NTUC FairPrice outlet at Serangoon North has also started offering these bags, according to Lianhe Zaobao.
The Chinese daily reported that the supermarket chain is piloting a programme to replace its white shopping bags with grey ones made with 30 per cent recycled plastic.
This programme will eventually be rolled out islandwide.
Under the Resource Sustainability Act, large businesses with an annual turnover exceeding $100 million have been required to charge at least five cents per disposable shopping bag since July 3, 2023.
Businesses must also disclose the number of shopping bags sold, the amount collected and how it was used every year.
Supermarket chains such as FairPrice, Sheng Shiong and Don Don Donki are among eight operators enrolled in the disposable carrier bag charge scheme.
Earlier this year, Hao Mart and Ang Mo Supermarket were no longer required to charge patrons for plastic bags after being deregistered from the scheme.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) told AsiaOne that the two supermarket operators successfully applied to withdraw from the scheme at the end of 2025 as their annual turnover did not exceed $100 million in the past three years.
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bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com
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