North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Greens advocate bag levy
Do you take your own bags to the supermarket check-in? And would you take a different approach if you had to pay – even a small amount – for each of those plastic bags, with just a few items in each, that the shop gives you?
The Greens believe a charge would trigger a huge reduction in the number of one-use plastic bags New Zealanders go through, estimated at 1.6 billion a year.
So the party is proposing a 15c levy on all ‘‘single-use’’ plastic bags to cut back the number polluting the environment.
The bill, in the name of MP Denise Roche, would impose the charge at the checkout, with the proceeds recycled to non-profit or charity organisations working on waste minimisation and education.
Earlier moves for a full ban have failed to get much buy-in, but a charge has proved effective in lowering the number of plastic bags in other countries.
The draft law is modelled on a UK law which last year imposed a 5 pence levy. It has been hugely successful, with plastic bag use dropping by 85 per cent in the first six months.
In Ireland, the number of bags taken at the checkout has fallen 90 per cent in the first three months - from 328 bags per head of population to just 14.
Prime Minister John Key says he does not back a ban, and ‘‘I am not sure in the first instance a tax is the right way to go’’.
‘‘We are certainly encouraging people to be responsible because they are an issue when it comes to landfill.’’
Under Roche’s bill some bags would be exempt to ensure food safety standards are met.
‘‘Plastic bags in the marine environment contribute to an estimated 100,000 marine mammal deaths a year,’’ Roche says.
They also find their way into the food chain when they break down into small fragments that fish then swallow.
Speaking at the launch of Roche’s bill, Gina Dempster, from Wanaka Wastebusters, said the levy was key: ‘‘We take that many [bags] because they’re free. We love a freebie.’’