On the occasion of World Environment Day 2008 LANXESS launched a “Bring Your Own Bag” initiative with employees in Asia Pacific. 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 officially launched at LANXESS’s offices in China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Vietnam on 5 June 2008, in conjunction with World Environment Day.  To celebrate the occasion, employees were encouraged to come to work dressed in green.   Employees also signed their commitment to protect the environment on a pledge board which will become a permanent display in the office.

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