The ban on single-use plastic bags by Australia’s two largest supermarkets has prevented the introduction of an estimated 1.5 billion bags into the environment — and the retail industry is hopeful this is only the beginning.
Coles and Woolworths’ decision to stop offering single-use disposable plastic bags mid-way through the year was initially met with swift public backlash.
But three months on, the radical change has translated to an 80-per-cent drop in the consumption of plastic bags nationwide, according to the National Retail Association (NRA).
“Indeed, some retailers are reporting reduction rates as high as 90 per cent,” the NRA’s David Stout said.
Mr Stout said the ban was a “brave” move from the major supermarkets and was paving the way for smaller businesses — who typically cannot afford to risk the wrath of their customers — to follow suit.
“They’re [supermarkets] obviously seen as the product stewards so a lot of people will come back to them,” Mr Stout said.
“Obviously the best thing for smaller businesses is to either engineer out the bag completely or have the customer pay … they should be able to consider that strategy without fear of backlash.”
Life without plastic bags
The biggest question for many seems to be what to line rubbish bins with now that free bags are no longer.
Mr Stout is hopeful major retailers will continue to lead the charge towards a more sustainable industry and move to ban other single-use packaging options.
“Everyone delivering things in a package need to take responsibility for what they deliver it in,” he said.
“I think there’s going to be a lot more pressure on all of us to be more aware of what we consume.”
With NSW the only state or territory in Australia that has not moved to legislate to phase out plastic bags, Mr Stout said it was time to step up and quit relying on the supermarket ban to do the work.
“We’re still seeing a lot of small to medium bags being used, especially in the food category, and whilst I get some comfort that the majors have done this voluntarily, I think there still needs to be a ban in place,” he said.
“For business, for the environment, for the consumer and of course even for councils, which have to work to remove these things from landfills, there’s a multitude of benefits on a whole to doing this.”
