IdeaReusable plastic shopping bags in supermarket

Background: Every person in the world will use and discard 136 kilograms of plastic products, and almost all plastic products produced by humans still exist on Earth in some form. They are all abandoned in nature, enveloping our land and sea like diseases. Generally speaking, the carbon content of plastic products is around 75%, and assuming a combustion efficiency of 90%, the amount of CO2 released per gram is about 2.5 grams. China is the world's largest plastic producing country, and its carbon emissions are also the highest. In 2020, the carbon emissions of China's plastic production industry were 148 million tons, accounting for more than 40% of the global total emissions. In the past, the average temperature in China has risen by 1.2 degrees Celsius, which is against the UN SDG No. 13-Climate action. Plan design: We designed a reusable shopping bag for supermarkets. When we purchase items in supermarket, we will use plastic bags to hold them. Usually, we use stickers to seal these plastic bags. We designed an elastic rope to tie the bag and seal it. The elastic rope will have labels attached to show the price, which can replace traditional stickers. When customers arrive at the checkout center, the staff can use scissors to cut off the elastic rope. On the left side of the checkout counter, there are two recycling bins, one containing the used elastic rope and the other containing an intact plastic bag. The items in the plastic bag are packaged in paper bags provided by the supermarket or cloth bags brought by the customer. After the plastic bags in the recycling bin are filled, they can be placed in the supermarket for recycling, which can reduce the daily purchase of 60000 plastic bags. To begin with, we want to apply the idea of reusable plastic bags into supermarkets near our neighborhood. In the future, if the majority of supermarkets in China adopt our idea, it can possibly reduce a large number of plastic bags. It would be a great progress to alleviate carbon emission.

Expertise: Strong logical thinking, and creativity! I can help other organization design innovative products.