Woolworths has announced a nationwide ban of single-use plastic bags in their stores, phasing them out by mid-2018 and encouraging customers to pick up reusable bags instead.
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The decision prompted competitor Coles to do the same just two hours later, announcing it would also phase out the bags over the next 12 months.
What will I use now?
The single-use plastic bags will be replaced with reusable fabric bags or thicker plastic bags already available for purchase at Coles and Woolworths checkouts.
Some Woolworths stores, such as Dan Murphy’s and Cellarmasters, are already single-use plastic bag free.
German supermarket chain Aldi has never provided single-use plastic bags at the checkout since opening in Australia in 2001, asking customers to buy a bag at the checkout, bring their own, or go without.
A 2010 CHOICE online reader survey found 62 per cent of respondents already take reusable bags to the supermarket
Why the change?
The decision from the major supermarket retailers comes amid growing public pressure to address the issue of plastic bags use in the country.
The social media campaign, "ban the bag" has been signed by more that 160,000 people nationwide, and calls on the premiers of NSW, Victoria and Western Australia to introduce state-wide bans of single-use non-biodegradable plastic bags.
Currently, the ACT, South Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania have introduced bans on plastic bag use. Queensland has plans in place to do the same next year.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, NSW Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton welcomed the retailers' decision, but declined to say whether the NSW government would now implement a statewide ban of single-use bags.
What is the environmental impact?
It is estimated that Australian use about 4billion single-use plastic bags per year. Clean Up Australia estimates around 50 million plastic bags end up in our waterways and oceans.
Clean Up Australia also warns that plastic bags don't go away, they simply break up into smaller pieces of plastic, making them much more likely to be eaten by wildlife.
Plastic bags are recyclable. Reusing single use plastic bags as bin liners mean that they end up in municipal waste streams, and as a result, never recycled.
Plastic bags are made from non-renewable resources such as crude oil, gas and coal. If plastic is not recycled, this embodied energy is lost from the resource chain.
Plastic bags, including thicker reusable plastic bags sold at supermarket checkouts, can be recycled at supermarkets.
What about biodegradable plastic bags?
There is currently no national standard to verify whether plastic bags that claim to be biodegradable actually break down.
According to Sustainability Victoria, even if biodegradable bags break down, it is unknown what is left over after the biodegradation process.
Producing biodegradable bags still requires similar energy, water and resources as regular single use plastic bags.
Have bags been banned abroad?
According to CHOICE, Bangladesh was the first country to bring in a bag of polyethylene bags in 2002.
In the same year, Ireland introduced a nation-wide levy to discourage plastic bag use.
It is estimated that China saved 1.6 million tonnes of oil the year after the country introduced a plastic bag ban in 2008. China is the largest country to ban plastic bags.
