BYE BYE TO BAGS
Supermarket gets jump on statewide crackdown to reduce plastic
THE sun is setting on the age of the flimsy supermarket plastic bag and Woolworths is the first to sound the gong on the item shoppers have taken for granted for years.
Today there is not a flimsy grey plastic bag to be seen in Woolworths.
Instead, three types of reusable bags have been introduced including a fibre sack and a recycled plastic bag.
The move jumps the queue on the July 1 statewide ban on single-use plastic bags, and removes 3.2 billion “single-use” plastic bags from circulation nationwide annually.
“In Queensland we use nearly one billion plastic bags every year, and sadly, 16 million of these end up in the environment,” said State Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef Leeanne Enoch.
“That is equivalent to the weight of 96 small cars.”
Of course, “single-use” is subjective.
Just ask anyone who has a stash of the grey flimsies clogging their pantry.
Environmentally-conscious Gordonvale couple Thomas Cobban and Chey Goldsmith went to great lengths to source their own fibre trolley bags, but have in the past used the single-use variety for the rubbish bins.
“It does mean we have to buy our own trash bags,” Mr Cobban said.
But the couple consider it a small price to pay for a plastic free planet.
“We aren’t greenies or anything but we do like to go swimming and fishing,” Mr Cobban said.
“We go to Bali regularly and have seen what plastic does to the environment, it’s disgusting.”
The couple’s efforts to avoid unnecessary packaging put most of us to shame.
“We keep all our jars and use them in the pantry and garage,” Ms Goldsmith said.
“We try to avoid packaged foods.”
Dutch tourist Nick Vander Zijdenn was surprised shoppers could still pick up free bags until yesterday.
“A lot of people were throwing trash on the ground at home – this way we keep it clean,” he said.
Cairns and Queensland might seem glacial in comparison when it comes to banning bags.
The Netherlands binned free ‘single-use’ plastic bags in January 2016, and by April 2017, the Netherlands had recorded a 71 per cent decline in their use.