Problem with Woolworths WA plastic bag ban

The supermarket announced it’s phasing out its 15-cent reusable bags before a ban comes in for one state, but there’s a huge issue with the move.

Reusable plastic bags are going to be banned in WA with Woolworths replacing them with paper bags. Tracey Nearmy/Daily Telegraph

Woolworths revealed it will begin phasing out its 15-cent reusable plastic bags in Western Australia this month ahead of a statewide ban, but its move to paper bags is “just pushing the problem somewhere else”, according to one expert.

Shoppers who don’t bring their own bags will be offered Woolworths’ 20-cent paper shopping bags instead as the standard option, which will also be used for online orders.

But sustainability expert at Monash Sustainable Development Institute Jenni Downe said most of the time when a ban comes in it just moves the issue from one single use material to another.

She acknowledged there is no “silver bullet” to fixing the environmental problem but “demonising” one material like plastic just to substitute it for another can have unacceptable impacts.

“Other materials can be just as damaging, for example, when you produce paper the amount of water that needs to be used is huge and paper is relatively difficult to recycle,” she told news.com.au.

A lady unloads her re-usable plastic bags provided by Woolworths. Picture: AAP Image/Ben Rushton

She said plastics are increasingly focused on due to consumer concern about them ending up in the ocean, but there are also environmental impacts from using alternative materials.

“Paper recycling is somewhat more efficient than plastics recycling, and slightly better if littered in the ocean as it will break down quicker, so less likely to choke marine life, but how do you weigh up cutting down trees versus turtles choking?” she said.

“That’s why its complicated and researchers have to compare apples with oranges.”

Queensland University of Technology retail expert Dr Gary Mortimer noted that paper bags also take more effort to produce for retailers, adding in costs to the supply chains and logistics. He said paper bags weren’t necessarily better than plastic bags, warning customers could actually be forced to buy more of them.

“The other challenge with paper bags is they easily degrade once you put frozen groceries or cold products in, they get damp pretty quickly and get disposed of pretty quickly,” he said.

“Whereas as a plastic reusable bag tends to be more robust and more protected from wet, damp or cold grocery products.”

The paper bags being introduced. Picture: Monique Harmer

Will reusable plastic bags disappear across Australia?

Woolworths state general manager for WA, Karl Weber, said plastic shopping bags would be phased out of its stores and online orders across WA over the next month before the ban comes into effect in July, removing 30 million bags a year.

Downe said it was great that Woolworth was leading the way on implementing the ban as it allowed customers to deal with any issues ahead of time.

But she doesn’t expect the reusable plastic bag ban to roll out to other Australian states any time soon – either through retailers or governments – despite WA Premier Mark McGowan boasting the state was on the path to becoming a plastic-free leader in Australia.

“The fact Woolworths has only announced it for WA at this stage, and not across Australia, suggests it could take more time for other states to include thicker bags in their bans, unlike initial single-use plastic bag bans, which quickly spread across the whole country once a couple of states and two major retailers went ahead,” she said.

“Western Australia’s move doesn’t necessarily put pressure on other governments to keep up, but by taking the lead I think it will create an interesting conversation, draw attention to the issue and allow a debate about whether and how to adopt in other states.

“I suspect it will take longer as most states will see how WA goes and how easily they accomplish it and how effective it is.”

The reusable plastic bags were first introduced in 2018 when Woolworths was the first in Australia to ditch single-use bags, with others soon following suit.

If you forget your bags you will need to buy a paper one. Photographer: Liam Kidston

How will consumer’s feel?

Woolworths’ 20-cent paper bag, made by Australian company Detpak from 70 per cent recycled paper, is designed to be reused and can carry up to 6kg of groceries.

But Dr Mortimer predicted that shoppers would be “frustrated” by the ban on the reusable plastic option.

“It’s an interesting move, I suspect that shoppers will be somewhat frustrated in the fact that they have purchased these 15c reusable plastic bags and potentially now the retailer will be banned from providing them, which is disappointing,” he told news.com.au.

“Customers will now have to opt for a paper bag or the Polyethylene green bags or canvas bag, which are slightly more expensive and are 99c and canvas bags can be up a couple of dollars.”

However, as part of its announcement Woolworths said more than 80 per cent of its customers in WA now bring their own bags to shop.

Supplied Editorial Fwd: Woolworths pics

Downe said how much people use the bags is an important factor, but that the supermarket hadn’t made it clear whether the 80 per cent figure came from shopping data or if it was based on a customer survey, which is far less reliable.

“In surveys, people tend to over-estimate how often they do things and also what proportion of time they do it,” she said.

She encouraged a return to making cardboard boxes available to customers that are used to deliver and store products – a move that Aldi used to do when it first opened and an option still on offer at Bunnings.

“That is the type of system change where you start to see clear positive impacts and you start to get out of the grey area,” she said.

“It’s that revolution and changing the whole system tends to have much more impact than substituting one type of material for another type.”

Originally published as Problem with Woolworths WA plastic bag ban