Challenging The Plastic Bag Habit

Challenging The Plastic Bag Habit

Whichever supermarket you shop in- you will be challenged to Make a Difference by thinking before you take that plastic bag

Grocery retailers Foodstuffs and Progressive Enterprises today announced a joint campaign to Make a Difference to the environment by decimating the number of plastic bags used at their checkouts.

The new logo Make a Diffference will be rolled out to 646 supermarkets from Invercargill to Whangarei and will remind shoppers when they pick up their shopping trolley through to when they check out that they can choose whether to take a plastic bag.

John Albertson, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Retailers Association hosted today’s launch which was attended by the Minister for the Environment, the Honourable David Benson-Pope; members of the Select Committee considering the Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill and signatories to the Packaging Accord (2004).

“Whether you are shopping at Pak’n Save in Albany, Woolworths in Dargaville Countdown in Dunedin, Foodtown in Glenfield or New World in Timaru, you will be asked to Make a Difference. This is a unique initiative by two competitors to deliver a consistent message to shoppers.”

“In the last two years grocery retailers have introduced eco-bags, reduced their use of plastic bags and the amount of plastic in them and saved in the process the equivalent of approximately 9 million 2 litre drinks bottles. But it’s not enough. We have set a target of reducing plastic bags by 20% and if we are achieve this we have to get shoppers to take one less bag for every five bags they take. The supermarkets cannot do this alone they have to get shoppers to buy in to the campaign. This is what today’s launch is all about.”

One thousand typical shoppers have been asked by market researchers to build a picture of their current use and reuse of plastic bags and to identify what it will take to get people to use alternatives such as eco-bags.

The results of this on-line survey which was carried out in May were presented by Michael Walton, Director of Retailing for ACNielsen. This research provides a timely wake up call for New Zealanders about our green credentials.

• Whilst 54% of respondents consider themselves to be “green consumers”, two thirds will nevertheless always accept free plastic bags when at the supermarket.
•

• 66% think plastic bags are useful but almost the same number (60%) consider them to be harmful to the environment
•

• Only one third of New Zealanders currently use Eco Bags. The key barriers to use include remembering to take them and the cost of purchasing them.
•

• Women (42%) are more likely to use Eco-bags than men (24%)
•

• South Islanders (24%) are less likely to use Eco-bags than other regions overall (33%)
•

Paul Curtis, Executive Director of the Packaging Council said that the research has provided the focus for the supermarkets campaign but also offers insights for local and central government:-

“Three out of four New Zealanders support initiatives for voluntary reduction of plastic bag use, whilst fewer than 1 in ten people support a bag tax, so this campaign is entirely consistent with this preference. The research points to just over half of us taking more plastic bags than we think we can re-use so if we can get these people to take just one less when they shop, we will hit our reduction target and take 100 million bags out of the waste stream each year.”

“Two thirds are being used for kitchen rubbish and based on international experience there is a correlation between reduction in plastic shopping bags and an increase in the purchase of kitchen tidy bags or bin liners which tend to use heavier plastics. This is why we do not support a ban on plastic bags because to do so would simply be to move the environmental impacts elsewhere.”

74% people say they use plastic bags for their kerbside collections and 1 in 4 people actually put out plastic bags to be recycled. An overwhelming 9 in 10 would like to be able to recycle their bags in their kerbside recycling however less than one third of councils are currently though to provide this service.

The Retailers Association says this desire for kerbside recycling of plastic bags is matched by demand from recycling operators for this sort of plastic so they will be writing to local councils to share this research information with them.

A summary of the survey results is available from the New Zealand Retailers Association.

ends

© Scoop Media