Hotel & Tours Group

Bangkok's shopping elite took a small step towards combatting global warming, starting, appropriately, in some of the capital's most luxurious, air-conditioned department stores. In mid September, the Mall Group launched a green-friendly campaign at its eight department stores by switching from plastic bags to biodegradable bags.

From now on shoppers at The Mall's Gourmet Market outlets and swish department stores will be given the option of using a free biodegradable plastic bag or a reasonably-priced canvas tote bag to carry their goodies back to their parked BMWs and Mercedes Benzes.

The canvas bags will be either given away after a purchase of more than 500 baht (
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The biodegradable plastic bags, made from a mixture of organic and plastic and guaranteed to disintegrate one and a half years after you've gotten your purchases home, are The Mall's small contribution to fighting global warming.

The group, which operates some of Bangkok's poshest department stores such as Siam Paragon and Emporium along with six malls, now uses an estimated 150 million plastic bags a year. "The biodegradable bags cost 5 to 10 per cent more than regular plastic bags," said Chamnarn Maythaprachakul, The Mall's senior vice president for marketing. "We will absorb that."

The group expects to spend 100 million baht on its bag campaign, which hopefully will become fashionable among Bangkok's plethora of competing department stores and supermarkets.