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Harris Farm slams rival supermarket Coles over plastic bag ban backflip

A NSW fresh food chain has taken aim at Coles for their “backflip” decision to keep giving customers free, re-usable plastic bags.

Harris Farm Markets, which has 25 outlets across the state, has taken to Facebook to slam the decision, announced by Coles on Wednesday morning.

“We’re really disappointed by the decision from Coles Supermarkets this morning to backflip on their plastic bag ban and give out re-usable plastic bags free of charge indefinitely,” the Harris Farm Markets statement reads.

Coles will continue to give out free re-usable plastic bags indefinitely. Source: File/AAP
Coles will continue to give out free re-usable plastic bags indefinitely. Source: File/AAP

“Giving away re-usable plastic bags is an environmental disaster, this just increases the amount of plastic that will now make its way into landfill and our waterways.

“Removing plastic bags from our checkout registers at the beginning of the year was not easy, we are really grateful for all the hard work and support from our customers and our team.

“We now renew our call to Gladys Berejiklian and the State Government to enforce a ban on single-use plastic bags immediately.

“We also call on the Board of Coles to reconsider this decision for the sake of our planet.

Harris Farm Markets have slammed Coles over their plastic bag backflip. Source: Facebook/Harris Farm Markets
Harris Farm Markets have slammed Coles over their plastic bag backflip. Source: Facebook/Harris Farm Markets

And Harris Farm ended with a public message to Brad Banducci and the team at Woolworths – “please don’t do it. #banthebag.”

The post has attracted more than 1800 ‘likes’, 200 shares and more than 200 comments, with most Facebook users in agreement with Harris Farm Market’s statement.

But not everybody was impressed.

“Geeeeez calm your farm, Harris Farm … charging for plastic bags is the biggest money making scandal in history,” one person wrote.

“Sure, there are environmental benefits, but on the whole it’s merely another revenue stream for the big supermarkets.

“If you’re so concerned about the environment then simply replace your free of charge plastic bags with free of charge environmentally friendly bags.”

Source: Facebook/Harris Farm Markets
Source: Facebook/Harris Farm Markets

Hi Jonathon, we already have!,” Harris Farm responded. ” We’ve had free reusable paper bags at the registers in our stores since January.”

“There are no free bags of any kind in Canberra supermarkets, it’s the law and has been for years,” another person wrote.

“No-one here has died of hunger because they couldn’t get their shopping home. What’s wrong with people, take bags with you.”

Coles declines to respond to Harris Farm

Coles declined to comment specifically on Harris Farm’s comments.

“When Coles phased out single use plastic bags on 1 July in QLD, NSW, Victoria and WA, some customers told us they needed more time to make the transition to reusable bags,” Coles said in a statement provided to Yahoo 7.

The Coles re-usable plastic bag was only meant to be free for one week. Source: 7 News
The Coles re-usable plastic bag was only meant to be free for one week. Source: 7 News

“We’ve been delighted to see customers grow more accustomed to bringing their reusable bags from home so they are relying less on complimentary bags at the checkout.

Many customers bringing bags from home are still finding themselves short a bag or two so we are offering complimentary reusable Better Bags to help them complete their shopping.

“We encourage customers who receive the complimentary bags to bring those bags back for their next shop.

“Complimentary bags are intended to be an interim measure to help customers make the transition to reusable bags.”