China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia and Vietnam – German specialty chemicals group LANXESS is promoting a “Bring Your Own Bag” culture among its employees in the Asia Pacific region.
Besides giving out a reusable bag to every employee, the company is also placing additional reusable bags at the main doorways of its offices, making them convenient to be picked up by employees who plan to go shopping during lunch breaks or after work.  

The initiative was launched at LANXESS’s offices in Singapore, China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia and Vietnam on 5 June 2008, in conjunction with World Environment Day.  To celebrate the occasion, many employees came to work dressed in green.   Employees also signed their commitment to protect the environment on a pledge board which will be displayed in the offices.

Singapore Environment Council's General Manager, Mr Yatin Premchand said, "It is certainly encouraging to see that Lanxess is supporting the Bring Your Own Bag campaign. We hope that more companies will take the initiative to implement similar environmental programmes as it will definitely help to spread the message to consumers to be mindful of the environment while on their shopping trips."

Mr. Ian Wood, Managing Director of LAXESS Pte Ltd, said, “Our objective is to make it easy for employees to choose and use reusable bags, whenever possible, by putting them right before their eyes.”

Mr. Wood added, “We believe that Lanxess employees can serve as an effective support group in encouraging one another to be eco-friendly.  Switching to reusable bags is one simple way to go ‘green’ in our daily lives. And when people see others making the responsible choice, they're likely to do so too.”

Mr. Jewoong Ko, Managing Director of LANXESS Korea Ltd, said, “LANXESS is fully committed towards environmental protection.  We hope that this ‘Bring Your Own Bag’ initiative will help our employees develop the habit of using reusable bags instead of plastic shopping bags and, they, in turn, will encourage their families and friends to do likewise.”

President & CEO of LANXESS K.K Mr. Hiroaki Ito said: "Japan is a country with a high use of plastic bags, a lot of which are used to hold lunch boxes in office areas. I believe that LANXESS employees can make a difference by using LANXESS’s reusable bags placed in the office, where employees can easily reach them everyday."

Dr. D.G. Talekar, Director, LANXESS India Private Limited, said, “We at LANXESS India believe that it is important to empower our employees to become active agents of sustainable development.”

Mr. Wang Yongli, President of LANXESS Greater China, commented, “In addition to the strict measures we as a company undertake to meet our social and environmental responsibilities, every LANXESS employee should always be mindful that we can also individually contribute to global efforts to prevent climate change in small but meaningful ways.”

Reusable Bags, a US-based environmental group, estimates that some
500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed each year on a worldwide basis. That works out to over one million plastic bags being used per minute.

Beginning from June 1st, all Chinese retailers, including supermarkets, department stores and grocery stores, are banned from providing free plastic shopping bags.  According to statistics from the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, about 400,000 tons of plastic bags are consumed each year by supermarkets across the country. That works out to 1,300 tons of oil consumed daily to produce plastic shopping bags for supermarkets alone.

South Korea’s departmental stores, supermarkets, and bakeries have stopped giving out free shopping bag. Instead consumers are charged 100 won for each paper shopping bag and 20 won for each plastic shopping bag.

According to the Ministry of Environment in Japan, it is estimated that some 30 billion plastic bags are consumed each year in Japan equivalent to 302,000 tons in weight.  

In Singapore, about 2.5 billion plastic bags are consumed in a year or the equivalent of 625 bags per person per annum.

LANXESS is a leader in specialty chemicals with sales in 2007 of EUR 6.61 billion and currently around 15,200 employees in 21 countries. The company is represented at 50 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacture and sale of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.

Singapore,     5 June 2008

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