Plastic bag sales soar ahead of ban

Reusable plastic bag sales are soaring after supermarkets stopped offering single-use plastic bags.

An anti-plastic change is taking place across the country, but customers aren’t welcoming it with open arms.

Desperate Countdown customers have been taking shopping baskets from Orewa and Dunedin stores home. Countdown Orewa has gone from having about 200 shopping baskets to six in the past month.

A spokeswoman for Countdown said the situation was ‘‘disappointing’’ and asked customers to return the baskets.

Shoppers are paying for plastic in many cases.

Sales of reusable plastic bags are on the rise for Countdown, but have increased six-fold for New World since it ditched single-use plastic bags.

Foodstuffs NZ spokeswoman Antoinette Laird said baskets going missing at its New World, Pak ‘n Save and Four Square stores was ‘‘not a widespread issue’’.

Laird said the supermarket chain also gave away ‘‘millions’’ of reusable bags to help their customers transition into using them.

She said use of single-use plastic bags had declined by 30 per cent.

Countdown also sells a recyclable bag for $1, which can be brought back into the store and replaced free when it breaks down.

New World, Pak ‘n Save and Four Square will stop providing plastic checkout bags from December 31. Liquorland is expected to end the use of single-use plastic bags by February, 2019.

About 85 per cent of Countdown’s 182 stores will be single-use plastic-free by the end of next week.

‘‘With our stores using on average around 6000 bags every day, the faster we can make this change, the sooner we can make a difference for the environment,’’ Countdown general manager of corporate affairs and sustainability Kiri Hannifin said.

Since the phase out of single-use plastic carrier bags in May, Hannifin said Countdown had already removed 22.5 million bags from circulation.

‘‘The faster we can make this change, the sooner we can make a difference for the environment.’’ Countdown’s Kiri Hannifin