This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 12, 2022 - September 18, 2022

Plastic is undeniably one of the most notorious pollutants on Earth. Beebag, a social enterprise founded by twin brothers that focuses on eliminating plastic pollution, is trying to change consumer behaviour by providing incentives to switch to reusable bags instead.

Although the government has sought to reduce plastic use in the country by undertaking numerous initiatives, including charging 20 sen for each plastic bag at stores and banning the use of plastic straws, these haven’t had the desired impact with regard to single-use plastic.

According to a 2020 report published by WWF-Malaysia, post-consumer plastic waste generation in Malaysia is estimated to be more than one million tonnes. Even though most plastics can in fact be reused and recycled into usable products, 81% of the material value of plastics is lost due to failure to recover the material.

“Almost 80% of Malaysians don’t use reusable bags and instead rely on plastic bags, especially at night markets. Most people who shop at night markets do not carry reusable bags because there is not much benefit or motivation for them to use the bags,” says Joshua Lim, CEO of Beebag. “That’s why we want to encourage more people to use reusable bags through incentives. We want to motivate and reward them for using such bags.”

Beebag is a durable and eco-friendly bag made of polypropylene (PP) with a Beetag attached to it. Using near-field communication (NFC) as the underlying technology for the Beetag and to ensure a seamless exchange, both user and vendor would have to download the Beebag app on their smartphones to earn rewards.

“Each bag comes with a Beetag that has a chip coded by us. Users would have to link the tag to their account, and whenever they use the bag and tag at a partner store, the vendor will have to scan the tag on the vendor app.

“Through this, users will be able to collect Bee points [reward points] at each use to claim discount vouchers and other rewards via the Beebag app,” says Joel, chief business development officer of Beebag, and Joshua’s twin.

Beebag is also relatively more eco-friendly than other plastics as PP can be recycled. PP breaks down more quickly in a span of 20 to 30 years compared with more than 500 years for other plastic materials, share the co-founders.

“We will upcycle the Beebag at the end of its life cycle. All you have to do then is return it to us, and we will treat it responsibly,” Joshua says.

The brothers are still working on finding appropriate partners who can undertake a proper upcycling process.

Founded at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, Beebag was initially a college assignment that the duo then developed into a full-fledged business. Joshua and Joel are economics and finance graduates of Xiamen University Malaysia, a private varsity in Bandar Sunsuria, Selangor.

Despite coming from an economics and finance background, the brothers say their unequivocal passion for combating plastic pollution inspired them to start the business. They got the idea from an elective carbon management course to solve plastic waste. Hesitant at first, the brothers decided to turn their assignment into reality in the final year of their undergraduate journey.

“Two years later, our younger brother, also in Xiamen University, took an elective for sustainability entrepreneurship. Then the lecturer who is also now our co-founder, Dr Abdul Khaliq Rasheed, reached out to us to see if we wanted to turn this idea into a real business, which was how we started. During the initial stages, we didn’t have any expertise in the start-up world, nor did we have funds,” Joshua recalls.

Beebag participated in accelerator programmes to establish its brand and gain more insight as a start-up. Its recent participation in the Youth Co: Lab Malaysia, a social entrepreneurship movement by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Citi Foundation, won them a place in the top 10. Joshua says they will be competing again this year and are eyeing a spot in the top three.

“The other one is the National Solutions Forum, an initiative by Sunway and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Malaysia. We were among the top nine finalists and received RM10,000 in prize money,” he adds.

Beebag also received a grant from the Cradle Fund through the its CIP Spark Programme, in addition to getting into the top 30 of the Selangor Accelerator Programme.

During the nascent stages of their start-up, Joel admits businesses were the hardest to convince.

“Most businesses want [Beebag] to bring them business or have a lot of monetary value. We tried hard to prove that it does bring them long-term value,” he says.

After being turned down by almost 30 vendors, the brothers tweaked their proposition. “Since the pivot, more people have started joining us,” says Joshua.

Beebag currently has 17 partner stores, primarily made up of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the Klang Valley. The brothers secured their first partnership with Seedy Zero Waste Store located in Shah Alam. That got the ball rolling and they were then able to secure partnerships with others. Their goal is to collaborate with large retail stores and reward customers for using reusable bags. Currently, they are in partnership talks with chain stores like 99 Speedmart and myNEWS.

When it comes to adopting sustainability, Malaysia still lags behind, says Joshua. That said, he notes few countries have really succeeded in adopting sustainable practices.

“Tremendous effort is needed to reach an optimum level of sustainability,” he points out.

Changing the habits of consumers who have been using plastic bags for years is no easy task.

According to Bernama, all state governments have agreed to implement a pollution charge on plastic bags used, with a minimum value of 20 sen for each bag through the “No Plastic Bag” campaign, which has already been implemented in Penang, Selangor and Johor.

Environment and Water Minister Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man had said that the “pollution charge”, which has been in place since 2021, was effective in reducing plastic pollution in the country. But many vendors continue to give out free plastic bags for fear of losing customers who will be charged 20 sen per bag, says Joshua. Through the reusable bag and reward system, Beebag is offering a win-win situation to both buyer and seller.

The duo also actively participated in the MY Clean Beach programme to clean and rid local beaches of plastic waste washed onto coastal areas.

“Every single day, plastic washes out like crazy. Awareness is very low and people seem to not know how severe plastic pollution is and don’t see that it will directly affect them. So, they don’t care about it and [that mentality is] hard to change,” Joshua laments.

To work around that, gamification is another promising avenue to engage and raise awareness of sustainability issues. Beebag is looking into including games in its app as an alternate means of instilling environmental consciousness on top of gaining points.

“You know, it’s kind of like Candy Crush where you need points to gain lives. So, we are planning to integrate a similar concept — for you to get lives, you need to earn points, which means you need to reuse your bag,” says Joshua.

Beebag officially launched on April 22 and the pilot programme ended on July 22. It is preparing to launch Beebag 2.0 in November with a new and advanced user experience. The Beebag app, which already has 400 beta users, is now available to download for Android and iOS.

“We do plan on releasing more variants of the bag to cater to different demographics … in different sizes and materials as well,” Joel says. “Some think this material [PP] is crappy and don’t like it. Others prefer cotton canvas bags. So, we will try to create more varieties in the future.”

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play.