A ban on plastic bags in Australia yields dramatic results

Australia’s two largest supermarket chains stopped offering single-use plastic bags to shoppers three months ago, which now means that around 1.5 billion fewer plastic bags have ended up in the environment.

The two retail giants, Coles and Woolworths, decided not to stop handing out disposable plastic bags in a decision that angered quite a few customers. Yet within a few short months the move has led to a 80% drop in the consumption of plastic bags across Australia, according the National Retail Association.

“Indeed, some retailers are reporting reduction rates as high as 90 per cent,” industry expert David Stout was quoted as saying. Supermarkets, he added, are “seen as the product stewards so a lot of people will come back to them. 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.”

Australia isn’t alone among developed nations to have begun phasing out single-use plastic bags and other items. In late October lawmakers in the European Union voted overwhelmingly in favor of a complete ban on 10 single-use plastics, including straws, coffee stirrers and cutlery.

According to plans, the 10 single-use plastic products, which all have easily available alternatives, will be banned by 2021. States within the EU will also be required to recycle 90% of plastic bottles by 2025 with plastic manufacturers covering some of the costs of waste management.

“Europe has to come to terms with the fact that we cannot just put it on someone else’s shoulders,” EU Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans noted. “It is the first strategy in the world that looks at the whole issue of the role of plastics in our economy,” he added. “If we don’t move now, if we don’t move swiftly … you will have more plastic in the oceans than fish.”