Plastic bag ban to begin next year
WELLINGTON: New Zealand announced yesterday it will ban disposable plastic shopping bags by next July as the nation tries to live up to its clean-and-green image.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealanders use hundreds of millions of the bags each year and that some of them end up polluting coastal and marine waterways.
Ms Ardern made the announcement at a beachside cafe and said it was the single biggest issue that schoolchildren write to her about. She had three children read aloud their letters before she led several children on a cleanup along the beach.
New Zealand’s two main supermarket chains had already announced their own plans to phase out plastic shopping bags by the end of this year.
Many countries and states have introduced bans or restrictions on single-use plastic bags, including France, Belgium, China, Hawaii and California.
But a major supermarket chain in Australia changed course several times this year after customers got angry about its plans to start charging shoppers for bags. Under its latest plan, customers at Coles stores will start paying for bags on Aug 29.
Six of Australia’s eight states have banned single-use bags. But the most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria — where more than half of Australians live — have resisted change.
In New Zealand, a talkback host was hoping to start a crusade to keep the bags after being inspired by what happened at Coles. Heather du Plessis-Allan told listeners on Newstalk ZB that plastic bags were a great invention.
However, New Zealand’s Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage said that there had been a backlash against Coles because there hadn’t been state leadership shown in New South Wales.