Woolies makes quiet backflip on paper bags made in Australia

Woolworths has quietly reversed a popular decision on its reusable shopping bags after making a big announcement two years ago.

Woolworths has quietly reversed its decision to only use paper bags manufactured in Australia.

The major supermarket will continue to sell bags made in China and Vietnam, despite announcing in 2021 that it intended to only sell Australian-made bags in its stores.

Some customers revolted against Woolworths when it first released paper bags in its stores in 2020 due to the fact that they were made overseas, pushing the supermarket to pursue locally made bags.

Paper is the supermarket’s cheapest option for bags, costing 25 cents.

Woolworths announced in April 2021 that it had struck a deal with South Australian-based manufacturer Detpak, followed by another deal with Victorian company Opal to supply bags to its stores.

“The supermarket has been working with Detpak to plan and grow local capacity since early 2020 to produce the paper bags at scale in Australia and support a transition to a 100 per cent Australian-made line nationally,” it announced at the time.

Despite this, the company will now continue to import bags from China and Vietnam for customers to purchase, Crikey reported.

Woolworths said its decision to remove its 15-cent soft plastic bags from sale have caused a wave of customers turning to paper bags as their cheapest option.

Demand for the paper bags has now outstretched Australian-made supplies, forcing the grocery giant to have to rely on overseas-made bags, a Woolworths spokesman told NCA NewsWire.

The phasing out of 15 cent plastic bags meant that more paper bags were needed in stores, Woolworths said. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

“To reduce the amount of plastic in the community, we‘ve removed soft plastic shopping bags from our check-outs,” a Woolworths spokesperson said.

“We‘re encouraging customers to bring their own bags, however we know that more customers will now rely on our paper bags, and unfortunately we can’t source enough in Australia to meet the increased demand.

“The production capacity in Australia is currently limited and we’re working with two Australian manufacturers to source as many locally made paper bags as possible.”

The company would not comment on the percentage of bags that are Australian-made, citing commercial confidence.

The spokesperson said that Woolworths has supported investment in new machinery to boost production capacity in its suppliers and would continue to do so in the future.

Its partnership with Opal has lead to the creation of 30 jobs while its contracts with Detpak produced another 24.