No Plastic Bag Community 1.

0 Introduction Background Plastic bag consumption rate is exceptionally high with the average consumption per individual amounting it to and per week and there are concerns over its safe disposal. Every year, more than 500 billion plastic bags are distributed, and less than 3% of those bags are recycled. They are typically made of polyethylene and can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills that the process emits harmful greenhouse gases, and contribute to global warming (Sayre, 2007). Sourced from the Penang Government official portal, according to Chief Minister of Penang YAB Lim Guan Eng said the Malaysians are dumping RM 163 million values of recyclable sources in plastic forms. On top of that, it is estimated that Malaysians on average produce 19,000 tons of solid waste annually with plastic bags and products representing 24% of the total waste. According got the Save Your Environment (2010) website; No Plastic Bag Day Campaign has been practicing in most of the countries like Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Australia. Beginning January 2010, a nationwide ban on plastic bags took effect with the goal of promoting more environmentally friendly bags made of fabric, recyclable paper or a special biodegradable plastic (Adams, 2011). In Malaysia, the Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Lajim Ukim (2010), claimed the No Plastic Bag Community as part of a national agenda to continually control and reduce solid waste generation in the country, in line with the local Governments campaign to educate the public on recycling and reducing waste. The Selangor Tourism, Consumer Affair and Environment committee chairman, Elizabeth Wong said that the aim is to reduce the usage of plastic bags, not eradicate it. The

goal is to create awareness among the public to protect the environment, and to be more concern about our environment. The government also wants the public to know that protect our environment is our responsibility. On the 6th of July 2009, Penang started the ball rolling by launching the No Plastic Bag Day campaign. The campaign extended to 3 days a week, which are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and with that, on the 1st of Jan, 2011, Penang has achieved the ultimate No More Free Plastic Bags Any Day (Basini & Misni, 2011). The Aliran (2011) website states that even the federal government is emulating such an approach in their No Plastic Bags Every Saturday nationwide campaign starting January, 2011. Soon after, hypermarkets and supermarkets such as TESCO, Giant, Carefour in Selangor, and other parts of Klang Valley also took part in not providing free plastic bags on Saturday. Also, in order to make this campaign more effectively, shoppers also have to pay RM 0.20 charge for each new plastic bag used on that day. While some shoppers embraced the campaign enthusiastically by bringing their own shopping bags, others complained about caught unawares or insisted on getting plastic bags, others (Chan, 2010). The campaign started so quietly that many customers although applauding the move, were frustrated at being caught unawares (Ho, 2010). According to a report from The Star on line dated on 20th of January 2010, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said that there are still objections from certain quarters, and his staff had also been scolded by the public during the campaign. On the Aliran website, an article entitled Gerakan Has Finally Shown Its True Colours dated on the 20th of January, 2011 reported the Penang Gerakan chief Datuk Dr. Teng Hock Nan said that the ban on free plastic bags should be studied again.

On the 26th of February this year, in the article entitled No Plastic Bag Campaign Not Taken Seriously the Star paper reported that the Assistant Minister in the Chief Ministers Department Tan Joo Phoi quoted that consumers must be prepared to change their attitude and mindset. Dai, a researcher specializing in the field of waste disposal from Urban Environment Management Center at Fudan University said that the cost of enforcing such a policy is too high for authorities, and as a result, they have not been able to control the habits of consumers, and people have formed the habit of using plastic bags. It took some 20 years to get people to replace bamboo baskets with plastic bags, and now, it is not easy for people to suddenly abandon the use of plastic bags. 2.0 Journal Reviews The government plays the communicator role to send the message across effectively. Research and theorizing focused on specific contexts of persuasion (e.g., political advertising or changing attitude and behavior), a number of more general theoretical perspectives on persuasion have been developed. Among the more prominent and promising is the Elaboration Likelihood Theory (ELT) (OKeefe, 2008). The ELT was offered as a general framework for organizing and understanding the basis process responsible for attitude change (Petty, Wegener, Fabrigar, Priester & Cacioppo, 1993). Peoples motivation and ability to think about issue-relevant messages determine the elaboration likelihood (Choi & Salmon, 2003). The ELT seeks to explain the different ways in which one evaluate the information received, sometimes in the elaborate way, using critical thinking and sometimes in a simpler, less critical manner. There are two routes for processing information, a central route and peripheral route. In central route, it involves critical, logical thinking and elaboration of message, to the extent to which a person carefully thinks about the issue-relevant arguments. Also in this route, one

will carefully scrutinize the message, and it requires intelligence and concentration, and repetition will work. Thus, when one process information via the central route, one will actively think about and weigh it against what they already know, and one will consider the arguments carefully. In peripheral processing, one does not look closely at the strength of the argument and therefore, when one process information through this route, one is much less critical. The peripheral route offers shortcut to accept or reject a message without active thinking about the attributes of the issue. Also, one may simply rely on the number of arguments to determine whether to accept a message. One will often quickly make judgments about whether to believe what one hear or read relying on various simple cues and external cues. For example, well-liked celebrities, attractiveness, music and flashy computer graphics are able to help to make a decision (Littlejohn & Foss, 2008). Because elaboration likelihood is a variable, it can be used both routes at once. As this campaign is targeting to the mass public, both routes are best to be used to target different target audience. To aim at the audience that process information via the central route, the government can persuade them by providing sufficient information on the negative impact the plastic bags has on our earth. The facts and information provided has to be easily obtained and accessible for the public to make careful considerations. Also, the contents have to be accurate and convincing as strong arguments will produce major shifts in attitude, and it will be permanent and more resistant. As for those who use peripheral route, attractive recyclable bags can be designed and sold to attract public. Celebrities can also help to influence the public and let them know it is cool to help to reduce the usage of plastic bags. A campaign fronted by a celebrity may provoke interest and, through peripheral processing, lead the viewer to understand the

message (Robertson, 2008). Most importantly, the repetition and consistence of the message has to exist in order to help reinforce and remind the public about the importance of the campaign. Another reason that causes the campaign to fail could be attributed to the channel. A message can be conveyed through a number of different channels. In addition ad adverts and leaflets, one way in which the mass media can influence is through entertainment and education strategies (Sood et. Al, 2004) such as introducing reduce plastic bags usage related issues and storylines into popular TV programmes. This allows the message to reach large sections of the public who might be difficult to reach by other means. Messages transmitted in TV programmes also have the advantage that people talk about TV with their peers, and thus raise and process the issues more closely (Robertson, 2008). Whichever channel an information campaign uses, they need high levels of exposure among their audience to be effective. High exposure levels and messages that provoke changes in social norms are the key elements of effective campaigns (Hornik, 2008). 3.0 Conclusion In conclusion, the communication strategy plays a crucial part in the whole policy or campaign. It is one of the factors that help to determine the success of the plan. Hence, it should be thoroughly studied and tailored in order to be able to send the message to the right receiver effectively.