Third deadline set to end free bags

CANBERRA: A major Australian supermarket chain yesterday set a third deadline for ending free plastic bags for shoppers as it balanced customer anger at an additional shopping expense with environmentalists’ demands for corporate action against plastic pollution.

Coles has been handing out reusable plastic bags to most of its Australian customers since July 1, when it introduced a ban on single-use plastic bags. It initially told customers they’d be charged 15 Australian cents (4 baht) for the reusable bags starting July 8.

However, Coles later shifted the demise of free reusable Better Bags to Aug 1. But on Wednesday the retail giant postponed that decision indefinitely.

With threats of a boycott by environmentally aware shoppers, Coles announced yesterday that customers would start paying for bags on Aug 29.

“I appreciate that this transition phase is taking longer than anticipated, but it is absolutely the right thing to do,’’ Coles Managing Director John Durkan said in a statement to staff.

Coles and its larger rival Woolworths account for around 70% of the Australian supermarket trade. The two chains announced in June new goals to reduce plastic products and packaging in response to requests from customers for a greener shopping experience.

Before they took action, half of Australia’s eight states had already banned single-use plastic shopping bags by law.

From July 1, Queensland and Western Australia joined South Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory with statewide bans.

But the most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria — where most Australians live — have resisted change.

Greenpeace spokeswoman Zoe Deans cautiously welcomed Coles’ latest deadline.

“It sounds like initially, they paid too much attention to the vocal minority and I think the sheer scale of the outrage has shown them what Australians actually think,’’ Ms Deans said.

“It’s confusing and frustrating for customers that they have been flipflopping on this issue and we really want to see them make a solid commitment to actually doing what they said they would do and ban the bags for good,’’ Ms Deans added.

AFP A seagull covered by a plastic bag struggles to take flight. People have become increasingly more sensitive to problems created by single-use plastics.