New Zealand banned single-use plastic shopping bags on July 1 2019. Since then, grocery retailers have been forced to look for alternatives.
Customers are encouraged to bring their own bags from home as a replacement. At most major supermarkets, reusable polypropylene bags and paper alternatives can currently be purchased for around $1 and 30c, respectively.
The United Nations Environment Programme published a report in 2020 that noted reusable cotton bags needed to be reused anywhere between 50 to 150 times to have less impact on the environment than a single-use plastic bag. Thick polypropylene bags need to be reused between 10 and 20 times.
But customers are looking for more from their supermarkets. A recent post from a Woolworths South Africa customer asked their retailer to consider something different, a bag sharing tree.
Image from Facebook user Brent Lindeque
The idea was met with a mostly positive response online. With over 30,000 likes on the post, Woolworths South Africa commented and said they had passed the suggestion on to the team. Presenters on the AM show were not as easily convinced, questioning how it might work if forgetful customers always take the bags without replacing them and the cleanliness of such an initiative.
Across the globe, there are similar initiatives implemented to encourage the use of reusable shopping bags. In Singapore, the Bounce Bags initiative allocates neighbourhoods with designated reusable bag sharing points, where residents can drop off or pick up bags as required. A number of individual retailers in the USA participate in the similar Take a Bag, Leave a Bag program, and
Existing initiatives to further eliminate the use of plastic bags include removing or replacing fresh produce bags and offering soft plastic recycling centres in store. Select Foodstuffs, Warehouse and Countdown stores in NZ currently offer customers soft plastic recycling centres - typically used for plastic bags. Many Countdown stores have removed single-use produce bags altogether, and Foodstuffs is trialling the use of home compostable alternatives. In Australia, Woolworths plans to eliminate the use of its recycled 99c reusable plastic bags, and Coles is trialling reusable produce bags instead of plastic ones.
Although shoppers had been asked to leave reusable bags at home during the pandemic to prevent exposure in store, as restrictions ease, it is important to find ways to encourage reusable shopping bag use.
