Plastic ban a boon for entrepreneurs

Ban on single-use plastic bags may turn into boon for some real entrepreneurs who have will to grab the opportunity out of the possible shortage of shopping bags in the market. At least one such woman entrepreneur is excited to grab the opportunity, as she has been facing the problem with the customers at her coffee shop enterprise. She is also a skilled handicraft trainer. Umm Majin admitted it to be very normal for the customers to come empty handed even though they wanted to take things home or to a meeting point as a matter of pastime with family and friends. “It is due to several years of habit that make them come out for shopping without any personal bags. It will take time for them to accustom to the situation and come with their own bags,” she said, and added that here was the opportunity for the entrepreneurs to contact the supermarkets and supply bags. “Markets are driven by demand and supply. In the event of ban on single-use plastic bags the demand for cotton or jute bags is going to be very high. Without waiting for support, the real entrepreneurs should jump and grab the opportunity,” she said. A qualified handicraft trainer, Umm Majin said the handicraft centres spread all over the Sultanate can do the mass production of daily shopping bags made of clothes or other bio degradable fabrics and hit the market as soon as possible. “It is like first come first served, because unlike the plastic bags, these personal bags would be washable and reusable. So the demand for them would stabilise after sometime,” she said. Umm Majin is already facing the problem of not having non-plastic delivery bags at her coffee shop for the customers who prefer take-away rather than sitting and eating. And the demand is there from across the sectors, mostly those who are into retail businesses. “I went to a local hypermarket to buy things for my coffee shop, but the sales team did not provide me any bag. I keep all of them into the shopping trolley and put them in my car. The real problem is how to take those stuff from parking lot to the house.” The situation has put many customers off guard, as they did not have any idea about the ban. When asked Hythem, a shopper at one of the hypermarkets, said the hypermarkets should have run some drive one month before to create awareness among the people. There are people who do not have any clue about the ban and there are people who are going out of the shopping outlets without any shopping. “The smart move should have been organising some awareness campaign inside the respective shopping malls. People would have purchased those bags in advance,” he said. He, however, welcomed the move to ban single-use plastic bags and said it was just matter of time. People would get tuned to it and come with their own bags for shopping.