"If you don’t need a plastic bag don’t take one"

27th March 2007

NEWS RELEASE

“If you don’t need a plastic bag don’t take one but if you take one make sure you re-use it!” say retailers

The New Zealand Retailers Association (NZRA) and grocery retailers Progressive Enterprises and Foodstuffs will tell a National Party caucus meeting tonight that together with The Warehouse they are on schedule to meet a 20% reduction in plastic bag usage by 2008 and are launching a new joint campaign to get their customers to cut down on the use of plastic shopping bags by only taking what they need and reusing what they take.

Barry Hellberg of the New Zealand Retailers Association (NZRA) says that whilst plastic shopping bags represent just 0.2% of a landfill, they are often seen as an icon of waste:-

“In the last two years since setting the 20% target under the Packaging Accord (2004), grocery retailers have reduced the number of plastic bags in relation to items sold by 6% and saved 434 tonnes of plastic through an 8% reduction in the amount of plastic used. In the same period, the sale of reusable bags in supermarkets has increased 37%. However plastic bags still punch well above their weight as a waste stream because we tend to associate them with litter and rubbish.”

Mr Hellberg points out however that 83% of Australian households say that they reuse plastic bags [http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/bags/] and the Australian Plastic and Chemicals Industries Association estimate that 75% of plastic shopping bags have a recognised second use as kitchen tidy liners, nappy bags, household storage, etc. [http://www.pacia.org.au/index.cfm?menuaction=mem&mmid=009&mid=009.002]:

“We are commissioning consumer research in New Zealand into people’s attitudes to plastic bags and to understand better how they are re-used around the home. It makes no sense for us to get rid of the plastic bag and replace it with an even heavier substitute because people will still need bin liners but we do want to make shoppers think about how many is enough.”

This New Zealand research builds on studies in Scotland which have found that plastic bag taxes just displace demand into heavier gauge plastic rubbish bags for waste disposal which have greater environmental impacts. Irish imports of plastic bags and sacks have increased by 20% since the tax was introduced to satisfy demand for additional bin liners, refuse sacks, nappy bags and other waste bags which previously supermarket bags were used for.

Mr Hellberg says that plastic bags are both reusable and recyclable: “20% of our local councils either collect plastic bags as part of their plastics collection or ask households to put their recyclables in plastic bags. This presents a great recycling opportunity as plastics recyclers in New Zealand are crying out for these bags as a raw material. So we will be encouraging shoppers to take personal responsibility for taking, reusing and recycling or disposing of their plastic bag - and remembering to take their good old shopping bag with them when they go to the supermarket.”

“At the moment we are focusing on supermarkets and expect the campaign to be in supermarkets by July this year but we will be encouraging all retailers including electrical, clothing, home and garden improvement and others to get their customers to reduce, reuse and recycle.”

The National Party caucus has invited the Packaging Council and the Retailers Association to a cross party briefing as part of its consideration of the Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill.

ENDS

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