Supermarkets' plastic bag bans set to escalate after most recent recommendation
The war on plastic bags looks set to escalate with retailers’ heavy-duty bags now targeted by state environment ministers.
Just months after the removal of single-use bags from Coles and Woolworths across the country, Australia will continue its plans to reduce plastic waste by targeting the thicker, reusable plastic bags, The West Australian reported.
State ministers agreed to a new national waste policy on Friday with Western Australia’s environment minister Stephen Dawson revealing his intent to target major stores.
“We’ll work with retailers to stop those heavier bags — the type that Myer uses, for example — about how we might phase them out,” Mr Dawson said.
“I think it would be a gradual phase-out, just as we’ve done with say microbeads.”
Earlier this month the National Retail Association praised the efforts of Coles and Woolworths in removing single-use bags. However, industry experts have warned that the move had merely papered over the cracks and their substitute bags may not be as environmentally friendly as first thought.
Mark Browne, a research associate at the University of New South Wales, pointed to the supermarkets and the NRA’s failure to share statistics on how many reusable bags had been sold when revealing 1.5 billion single-use bags had been held back from distribution.
“We have always been told that they are using less bags but they have left out key information, like how many of the more durable bags they have sold since,” the environmental expert told Yahoo News.
“Rather than having 10 lighter bags, we might now have one bag that is 10 times its weight.”
Dr Browne called for research on reusable plastic bags to be taken into consideration when proceeding with a crackdown on plastic bags.
Yahoo News has contacted Myer for comment on Minister Dawson’s comments.
