Ready, set for plastic bag ban
Many retailers are well prepared for a ban on single-use plastics bags, retail industry leaders say.
Retail NZ, the national retailers’ body, has welcomed the Government’s proposal to outlaw the bags over the next year.
But many big retail chains were already planning for that change, according to First Retail Group managing director Chris Wilkinson.
‘‘Having this confirmation is necessary as it will now put all retailers on a level playing field, meaning every business will have to provide alternative solutions or encourage customers to bring their own packaging.’’
The country’s two major supermarket chains, Foodstuffs and Countdown, are already well down the track. Foodstuffs, which owns New World, Pak’n Save and Four Square, has undertaken to ban the bags from January next year.
Its rival, Progressive Enterprises, which owns Countdown and FreshChoice, has said it will remove single-use plastic bags by the end of the year, as has The Warehouse Group.
Wilkinson said some smaller retailers had held back on retiring plastic bags because they were worried it would give competitors an advantage, ‘‘so this news will allow them to move ahead confidently’’.
A big factor had been the shift in public sentiment and awareness of plastic’s environmental effects.
‘‘We don’t believe it will compromise retail sales or goodwill as consumer sentiment is very much behind the move,’’ he said.
Shoppers were bringing their own bags, retailers were offering affordable reusable bags and traditional packaging such as paper bags was making a comeback.
‘‘This shows just how quickly awareness, peer pressure and responsibility can shift consumer behaviour at speeds we haven’t seen before.’’
Retail NZ said the Government’s stand was the right thing to do, and it would help its members find alternatives.
‘‘There are a number of suppliers in the market and they are already providing sensible alternatives for retailers to use,’’ the group’s public affairs general manager, Greg Harford, said.
He was glad the Government had included compostable bags in the consultation, as there had been confusion about the value of biodegradable or compostable bags. For that type of bag, ‘‘there’s not enough [recycling] facilities and they’re not readily available, so they don’t stack up’’.
The Warehouse said it was bypassing compostable bags and would move straight to a range of reusable bags over coming months.
Pejman Okhovat, chief executive of The Warehouse and Warehouse Stationery, said he didn’t anticipate many problems at the checkout.
Public attitudes had changed, illustrated by the fact that since the company had introduced a 10-cent charge on its bags in 2009, its plastic bag use had dropped 70 per cent.
Countdown said it would be phasing out single-use plastic bags from another 42 stores from August 13, meaning a third of its supermarkets would have shifted to reusable bags.