Time's up for plastic bags

Friday, 23 June 2006 22:58

The meeting of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC) this morning in Sydney is considering a report on the performance of the big supermarkets and a joint government phase-out plan.

The groups are calling for regulation to come into force this year to eliminate the free light-weight plastic bag as promised.  If applied from 2007, regulation would avoid 8 billion bags being handed out over the following 24 months, the groups said.

Since 2003 Environment Ministers across Australia have repeatedly made a commitment that plastic bags would be phased out. Major supermarkets entered into an agreement with governments to reduce plastic bag use by 50% by 2006 on the understanding that mandatory measures would be introduced if the target was not met.

The supermarkets managed a 41% reduction only and failed on a number of other parts of their agreement, such as increasing the recycling rate of plastic bags.

Ministers have the evidence before them – the supermarkets have not done enough and, except for stores like Bunnings that charge 10 cents for plastic bags, the rest of the retail sector have done nothing.

Retailers have squandered the opportunity to make significant reductions voluntarily and now must be regulated. Consumers have shown great enthusiasm and willingness to switch to reusable bags instead of single-use plastic bags, and 81% of Australians support a ban on lightweight plastic bags.