Plastic Bags

Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 April 2012 08:31

Plastic Bags - an endemic problem

Despite repeated efforts to resolve a phase-out plan for free supermarket plastic bags, environment ministers have failed. Voluntary programs have not made a substantial dent in the practice and billions are still handed to Australian shoppers, each year. In 2009 South Australia banned the bag with no adverse impact on shoppers or the supermarkets - why can't the rest of Australia?

Background

Industry has failed to meet agreed targets to:
- reduce the use of lightweight plastic bags by 50%
- increase in-store recycling to 15%
- reduce bag litter by 75% by end-2005.(a, b, c)

This concurs with the recent Environment Victoria survey which shows that 50% of shoppers with one or two items were automatically given a plastic bag; 78% of shoppers didn’t bring their own bag; and 58% used a free throw-away plastic bag.(d) Total Environment Centre's report Supermarket Shame: City of Sydney Plastic Bag Survey 2007 also showed industry failure. Nevertheless the Australian Retailers Association seeks a continuation of existing self regulatory measures.

Environment groups believe that the phase-out should occur as soon as possible.

Ban on Lightweights, Levy on Heavyweights

A ban on single-use, lightweight, plastic bags has been proposed by some Ministers and has 81% public support.(e) If applied from mid-2010, a ban would avoid 111 million bags being littered over the next 30 months. (f) Precedents for a ban exist in South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Eritrea, Papua New Guinea, four Indian States, the cities of Mumbai, Delhi and Hong Kong, and South Australia.

For greater efficacy, however, the ban should be coupled with a significant levy on all replacement bags. This will ensure that retailers do not simply replace single-use lightweight bags with another free alternative, such as paper or heavy-duty plastic, which would merely shift the problem (and litter) to another material. The result will be a quick conversion by the vast majority of the community to long life replacement bags, which are already available and well known.

Fast food outlets, that are restricted to one-way bags due to unavoidable contamination can be an exception to the ban and could either charge cost price for approved bio-degradeable bags complying with an Australian Standard and listed in the regulations, or charge an environmental levy.

The technical issue that will need to be resolved by government is the definition of the bags (lightweight v heavyweight). This should not be insurmountable nor a barrier as the ban/levy covers all bases.

(a) Australian Retailers Association, Code of Practice for the Management of Plastic Bags http://www.ara.com.au/images/ARABAGCOde.pdf, 9 October 1993, p. 2.
(b) Group One retailers achieved a mid-year 37.5% reduction but this did not include small retailers that make up 43% of industry. Australian Retailers Association, Code of Practice for the Management of Plastic Bags - June 2005 Interim Report, p. 2.
(c) Estimates a 27.5% reduction by end-2005, Nolan ITU for Department of Environment and Heritage. Plastic Retail Carry Bag Use 2002 – 2005 Consumption, 2005 Mid-year Report, November 2005, p. 5-6.
(d) Environment Victoria, The Great Plastic Bag Checkout, February 2006, p. 2.
(e) Clean Up Australia, Newspoll Survey, 29 May 2005.
(f) Based on the Nolan ITU estimate of around 1% of bags sold entering the litter stream every year. Nolan ITU for Environment Australia, Plastic Shopping Bags – Analysis of Levies and Environmental Impacts, Final Report, December 2002, p. 8.