Steve Price lets fly in an on-air rant about the plastic bag ban

ARMED with a crumpled graph, cutlery and a dog poop bag, The Project’s Steve Price had a word or two to say about the plastic bag ban.

STEVE Price has come under fire after a bizarre on-air rant about the single-use plastic bag ban.

“This is a bloody con job!” he declared in a bizarre interview on The Project Wednesday night, before pulling out a graph showing how countries with far higher populations produce more pollution than Australia and explaining how he uses single-use bags to pick up dog faeces in his backyard.

Presenter Hamish Macdonald asked Price a question, but then talked over the top of him rendering almost everything his guest said inaudible at the beginning of the exchange.

But, when Price found his voice, he went straight for the jugular.

“I want to see these greenies from the inner suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney, slothing around with their netted bags to nick off and leave me alone so I can go shopping properly,” he said on the show. “I can’t put my dog poo in a see-through bag.

Price wants greenies to leave him alone. Picture: Channel 10

“What people do is, take them (single-use bags) home and put their garbage in them and put them in their bins or use them to pick up dog droppings. I used four today.”

He pulled out a plastic knife and fork as well as a plastic bag for bananas, which he had got from an unspecified supermarket and accused the grocers of showing hypocrisy for just banning single-use bags.

Fired-up Price also pulled out a crumpled graph of “countries polluting the oceans most” and fleetingly waved it at the screen.

“China, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Brazil and the United States, we’re not even on the list,” he said.

Some on social media accused Price of being petulant and added that he should suck up the new rules like everyone else.

However, a few also stood up for the outspoken radio personality and agreed the new bag rules are pointless.

Jeez, and people think millennials are selfish... That display from Steve Price was disgraceful. #TheProjectTv @theprojecttv

— C A R L E Y (@carleycarleyb) June 20, 2018

#theprojecttv Aldi has been doing the bag thing for ages the others are just catching up. Also you can buy a roll of dog poo bags...easy.

— Sam(antha) (@CadreHershey) June 20, 2018

How are the other countries relevant? So are you saying it’s ok for us to pollute if it’s less than them? @StevePriceMedia #TheProjectTV

— NewWorldPeace (@EndWar2018) June 20, 2018

I agree with Steve. Bring back the plastic bag. #TheProjectTV

— ozboxfan (@ozboxfan) June 20, 2018

The debate comes as Woolworths enforced its ban on plastic bags today ahead of a wider ban in most states and other supermarkets on July 1 in a bid to reduce waste.

Woolworths and Coles last July joined a push to rid Australia of disposable plastic bags and set a deadline of June 30, 2018 for their stores to stop offering them to shoppers.

Woolies, which has provided more than 3.2 billion plastic bags a year to shoppers, later brought forward that deadline to June 20.

Shoppers will have to bring along re-usable bags or buy them instore. The ban will affect customers shopping at the retailer’s supermarkets, BWS, Metro and petrol outlets in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. The bags were already banned under state legislation in Tasmania, South Australia, the ACT and Northern Territory.

Green groups have welcomed the bans being introduced by Coles and Woolworths. Similar bans in Britain and Ireland have helped reduce plastic bag usage by up to 85 per cent.

Woolworths and Coles have also recently announced plans to slash the amount of plastic wrapping on fresh fruit and vegetables in response to demand from shoppers.

Some sustainability experts have criticised the single-use bag ban. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett.

However, some sustainability experts have questioned the move.

“The single use plastic bag ban is a positive step to try and reduce resources but that’s tempered by the fact people need to use reusable bags wisely,” Trevor Thornton, a lecturer in hazardous materials management at Deakin University, told news.com.au earlier on Wednesday.

UNSW’s Prof Sami Kara, who specialises in sustainability and life cycle engineering, also news.com.au that while the ban was useful in changing behaviour it was a “short term solution” that likely wouldn’t reduce plastic waste.

A 2016 report by the NSW Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found a cotton bag had to be used 131 times to equal the environmental impact of an HDPE bag used just once. A 2006 UK Government report came to a similar conclusion.

A paper bag has to be used three times and a thicker LDPE bag four times.