At least we don’t have four years’ imprisonment for carrying a plastic bag … yet
Oh, smelly new world! Belinda Tasker, AAP, June 20:
The end of a plastic era is upon us with Woolworths to stop providing single-use bags on Wednesday … National Plastic Bag Campaign co-founder Jon Dee has some tips to help shoppers adjust … Rubbish can be put straight into bins, which should be washed every few weeks … Food and compostable items can go in compost bins … People who live in flats can wrap food and compostable items in newspaper … Smelly rubbish like prawn shells can be wrapped in newspaper and frozen until rubbish collection night … Newspaper can also be used to line bathroom bins. What can dog owners use to clean up droppings? … empty bread bags …
Sam Duncan, Daily Mail, June 21:
No single-use plastic bags at Woolworths anymore, but they do provide these awesome reusable heavy duty plastic bags, sweet! … (wrote one customer on social media, showing) a green Woolworths shopping basket containing … (his groceries, which he’d taken home).
Sole purpose? Reduce plastic. Benedict Brook, news.com.au, June 21:
The backlash against the bag ban has begun. … (but) the green bag brigade is demanding plastic bag fans “suck it up” … stores (are) running out of green bags … and customers (are) using the … plastic fruit and veg bags as alternatives … “Do you think we are stupid?” said one customer … (the) replacements … (cost 15c and) take even longer to break down … Woolworths has said its sole aim is to encourage customers to … reduce plastic.
Reduce plastic? Brittany Chain, Daily Mail, yesterday:
“First online order today and my chicken fillets were packed in a deli plastic bag, then wrapped in paper, then put in a grey bag, then a produce bag and then in their 80 per cent recyclable bags,” one shopper said.
Charis Chang, news.com.au yesterday:
The green bags … sold at … Woolworths (for $1) have to be used 104 times … to make them more environmentally friendly than … grey single-use plastic bags … because it takes more material and energy to make the green bags … (which) are also made of plastic … a cotton bag had to be used 131 times … Clean Up Australia … (said) “Jute doesn’t take as much water to produce as cotton … (but) jute is mostly grown overseas and so there is a carbon cost to transporting it to Australia.
Leo Hickman, The Guardian, August 4, 2009:
In 2002, Ireland introduced a 15 euro cents tax on each (formerly free) plastic bag — the … “plastax” … (triggering) a 90 per cent reduction in the number (used and) a 400 per cent increase in the number of bin liners … (purchased and) an increased reliance on paper bags which … release more greenhouse gases when degrading …
No escape. Emma Young, watoday .com.au, June 20:
Perth, you’ve got less than a fortnight until the crutch of free single-use plastic is ripped from your grasp and you are left staggering unwillingly towards sustainability. Welcome to Part II of the series in which I motivate/shame you into joining me to minimise waste sent to landfill and do away with the need for those sweet, sweet free bin-bags.
The future? Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, April 25:
(In Kenya) a draconian ban (threatens) up to four years’ imprisonment or fines of $40,000 for anyone producing, selling or even just carrying a plastic bag. (The ban stopped people) defecating in a plastic bag … (and) throwing it on the tin roofs, a convenience known as “flying toilets” … (A man carrying produce in plastic bags said,)“I’m worried about the police, of course, but I’m not a bad person.” … A stallholder who sells fried chips … said, “My business is badly affected.”