Shoppers want more as plastic bag policy rolled out
Customers support Countdown’s decision to remove plastic bags from a third of its stores, but want the move to also extend to other plastic packaging.
Yesterday the supermarket chain removed single-use plastic bags from 42 of its 182 stores nationwide, including all stores in Dunedin, Invercargill, Nelson and Blenheim and eight stores in Auckland.
Spokeswoman Kiri Hannifin said plastic bags at Countdowns around the country would be phased out by the end of the year, but did not give a specific date.
In its earlier 10-store pilot, which began in May, nearly twothirds of people brought their own bags, she said.
A shopper at Countdown’s Ponsonby store in Auckland, Chloe Houston, said she supported the removal of plastic checkout bags, but wanted to see less plastic elsewhere in the store.
‘‘This move’s a stepping stone, I guess, but all the rest of the plastic you accumulate in your trolley is pretty frightening. We need to look at not only eliminating plastic but also how we create less waste,’’ she said.
Irish tourist Ciaran Walsh said he used a plastic bag for the first time in several years in New Zealand. ‘‘We don’t have the plastic bags for free in Ireland and we haven’t had them for years. And because of that, nobody uses them,’’ he said.
‘‘I tried to reuse mine from yesterday, but they’re still so easily available I just got another one today, because they’re there.’’
New Zealanders use about 1.6 billion single-use plastic bags a year, which end up in landfills, as litter, and in the sea.
On Friday, the Government announced single-use plastic bags would be phased out over the next 12 months.
Foodstuffs announced earlier this month that its supermarket brands, including New World, Pak’n Save and Four Square, would stop providing plastic checkout bags from next year.
Hannifin said Countdown had also removed plastic packaging from bananas, and would be removing single-use plastic straws by October 1.
The company also plans to package its in-store bakery goods in recycled plastic, produced in New Zealand from domestic plastic waste, but no date had yet been set.