Six young artists from across Australia will see their colourful artwork produced on thousands of reusable shopping bags at Coles supermarkets nationally.
The talented artists were chosen from a national bag design school competition to support Coles’ commitment to remove single-use plastic bags in its supermarkets.
The new designs include a montage of colourful fruit by 13-year old Abbey from Annerley in Queensland, a farmyard by Lucy from Tumut in New South Wales, and a yellow tailed black cockatoo by 19-year old Will from Meadow Flat in NSW.
Coles Chief Property & Export Officer Thinus Keevé, who leads Coles’ sustainability strategy, said the sale of reusable bags is a win-win for Coles customers, the environment and young artists.
“We are so pleased to be able to launch our new range of reusable bags to not only help the environment but also showcase Australia’s talented young artists,” said Keevé.
“Our goal is to become Australia’s most sustainable supermarket and we're always looking for opportunities to make a positive difference. We’ve already diverted more than 1 billion pieces of soft plastics from landfill since 2011 by providing dedicated soft plastic recycling bins in our stores through our partnership with REDcycle.”
“We hope these bright colourful bags so wonderfully designed by Aussie schoolkids will inspire customers to shop with reusable bags and help drive generational sustainability in Australia.”
Among the winning artists is 12-year-old Janelle Quek from Willetton, WA, whose colourful “Perth City” design features iconic Western Australia landmarks and emblems including the Perth skyline, Matagarup Bridge, Swan river and a black swan.
Janelle, who won $5,000 for Orana Catholic Primary School with the design, said she was excited to see her shopping bags hit the shelves at Coles.
“I am really excited to see the bags go on sale. I really like drawing and my design is of my favourite places like the Matagarup Bridge and the city,” she said.
Reusable shopping bags designed by Aussie schoolkids were first introduced to Coles in mid-2018 when single-use plastic bags were removed from stores. Since then, they have helped Coles raise more than $4 million for a variety of organisations, schools and charities, with 10 per cent of the sale of each bag supporting organisations such as SecondBite, Clean Up Australia, Guide Dogs, Little Athletics, Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) schools and Collingwood Football Club’s Community Foundation.
Four new Coles $2.50 reusable chiller bags are on sale now in Coles supermarkets and the $3 jute bags design will go on sale from October.
