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Free - Replacement Green Bags ("Bag for Good" Brand) @ Woolworths

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Just read that Woolworths is planning to trial paper bags which will be more expensive than it's plastic bag (20 cents vs 15 cents).

The article also mentions the "bag for good" which will be replaced it it's damaged no matter when it was purchased. Since it's been more than six months since this deal, I thought I'd repost it as a OzReminder.

We’ve launched a new reusable bag in our stores called the Bag for good™. It’s yours to use again and again, and if it ever gets damaged, we’ll replace it for free no matter when you bought it from us. Simply bring your damaged bag to the Customer Service desk in any of our stores and we’ll swap it for a new one. We’ll even recycle your old one so it can keep doing good.


Credit to Catchy for original deal and title.

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  • +13

    Just read that Woolworths is planning to trial paper bags(news.com.au) which will be more expensive than it's plastic bag (20 cents vs 15 cents).

    Paper bags were the standard bags we got at the supermarkets back in the 70's… They were always free

    Not sure why we should pay 20 cents for them now…

    • +18

      We had free paper bags at the local supermarket until the early 90’s.

      If I didn’t know any better I would guess they don’t care about the environment that much but they care about making a profit.

      • Blasphemer!

      • it was always a scam - we love coal cuz the yanks pay us to- screw the world screw Australia - our pollies will suck that lifelong million dollar superann from us and leave us and our country to burn…

    • +1

      I agree.
      I'm also happy that they've banned plastic bags but considering they used to be free the logical thing would be substitute it with something else eco-friendly.

    • +1

      If I bring my own bags I'd rather not subsidise the cost of your paper bags in the price of my groceries, JV.

      • +3

        It's not subsidised. It's extra profit. Look at their annual reports.

    • "Inflation!!"
      Yeah good luck explaining that one away.

    • +1

      Cancer from cigarettes was also cheaper back in the 70's because cigarettes were cheaper.

      Not sure why we should pay more for cancer now…

      /s

      • +6

        It was cheaper… not free. The bags were free hence the cost was part of the cost of goods. The cost of groceries today is more than then so the bags should still be free as the cost of the groceries should cover the bags. I haven’t noticed any of the groceries getting cheaper since they banned single use bags.

        • +1

          I haven’t noticed any of the groceries getting cheaper since they banned single use bags.

          They are making millions from the plastic bags now…

        • The reason why you havent noticed any prices go down is that they were never part of the cost of the groceries. was just a given to them. Now they are banned, they have the go ahead to charge and that now becomes the norm. Simple solution is just bring your own bag, grab a almost empty box off a shelf(do this all the time at aldi) or jsut hold things in your arms if its a small shop. Ive never paid for a bag at the supermarket and never will. Its just profit to them. A plastic bag does not cost them anything more than a few cents.

      • Because tax payers usually have to pay the bills for the expensive treatment of the self inflicated cancer

    • +1

      Paper bags are still free at the mushroom aisle.

      And plastic bags are still free at the fruit aisle.

      Being small, you use more, but they're free.

      • Paper bags are still free at the mushroom aisle.
        And plastic bags are still free at the fruit aisle.

        Don't worry, they're next…

    • -1

      They weren't free back then, you paid for them with all the things you bought.

      • -1

        No, they were definitely free.

        You could get them without a purchase too…

        • There is no such thing as free - you (or others who shopped there even if you didn't) paid for them with all the things that were bought.

          • @Parentheses:

            There is no such thing as free

            You could walk in the shop, go to a register and ask for some bags and they would give them to you. That is free…

  • +1

    Woolworths: "Let's save the environment"
    Also Woolworths: "(profanity) the environment, let's cut down trees"

    • Trees are renewable. Once plastic enters the ocean, its pretty much there forever. Eaten any fish lately?

      • I don't eat fish.

      • But the whole point of introducing plastic bags was to save the forests… at least that’s what they told us at the time.

        • +8

          Woolworths: we've removed single use plastic bags from our stores. With thicker ones we can now charge for!

          Also Woolworths: yay for the environment! Now let's take all that plastic we saved and use it all wrapping up fresh produce.

          • @pennypincher98:

            Now let's take all that plastic we saved and use it all wrapping up fresh produce.

            Is that a new thing? What did they wrap fresh produce with before all those bags were saved?

            • @eug: They didn't wrap fruit in plastic before, but they do now. They and Coles made $75 million out of killing off free bags, according to a KPMG study.They really don't give a rat's rear end about the environment.

      • Trees are renewable.

        So is plastic.

        • (Some) plastic is recyclable

          • +3

            @Jack D Price: Its not woolies (this time), but Coles has a dedicated bin just for soft plastic that can't be recycled in the usual bins.
            They claim they are able to send it to a different recycling facility that has the ability, as long as you bring all the soft plastics back and put in this one bin.
            So I did this, sorted and collected up all this plastic and carried it back to the store (I don't drive so it did take some effort) I asked the service guy where to find this special bin and was told it was up the other end of the store and that he would take it and put it in for me.
            He turned around and jammed it all in the regular trash behind him, I asked him WTF? And told him I could have done that at home, without all the effort and he shrugged and walked away.

            Hooray for Australias ability to give a F -_-

            • @Bakez: Woolies has these at the front of the stores. Been doing if for a few months now. I can only hope it goes to where they say it should be. I would have taken that guys name and reported him to Coles head office. If nothing else just for the fact that he lied to your face. Customer service is bad enough these days. Ding dongs like that dont deserve to be in it.

  • +3

    Even though we all used to think of the bags we got (plastic or paper) as being "free" the truth is we all still paid for them. It's just that the cost of the bags was built into the price of the items we purchased and so paid for indirectly.

    I know big w used to have a display in their lunch rooms with the cost of each different type of bag. And signs encouraging staff to bag items less often and /or bag them with the cheapest suitable option.

    Unfortunately, I don't recall any of the retailers announcing that a slight drop in prices would accompany the removal of their "free" bags.

    • even though the price difference would have been tiny, it would have been good publicity

  • +5

    Public response
    Plastic: shouldn't we be more environmentally conscious? It's destroying our ecosystem! I'm not shopping at [insert shop]!
    Paper: are you kidding? What if it rains! I'm not shopping at [insert shop]!
    None: how am I gonna get this all home! I'm not shopping at [insert shop]!
    Biodegradable: these bags aren't strong enough! I'm not shopping at [insert shop]!

    • Cardboard box? Plastic box? Cotton box? Hemp box?

    • Home Delivery Dude: Well, lucky me got plenty of jobs to do, only if they keep offering free delivery at [insert shop]!

  • Harris Farm went to paper bags after the move away from plastic and were giving them away initially.

  • If I used the old plastic bags as garbage bags , was I hurting the environment?

    • +1

      Yes as apparently they want you to just use the bin without a bag and wash the bin instead.

      • Right.

        The big, black garbage bags, they're biodegradable?

        I don't have enough garbage for a huge bag and I like to throw out small collections every day.
        What's my best course of action now

        • -1

          They sell rubbish bin bags in a few sizes to suit your requirements.

        • +3

          I just use the new plastic bags for throwing away my trash. They're very strong & I can use them for semi-liquid trash.

          15c x 365 = $55 a year. I'm fine with spending this.

          I am a citizen of a rich first-world country and I will live like a citizen of a rich first-world country. I refuse to live like a 3rd-world slum dweller and wash a smelly bin.

        • The maze biodegradable bags from Bunnings are great. They completely decompose, made from 100% vegetable matter and can be used for compost. You can get them in various sizes at Bunnings. Don't get more plastic bags, especially for rubbish. Even if you use your rubbish bin to throw out non compostable material, every limited use plastic bag you introduce hurts.

          Also be careful about other degradable bags, which just break down into smaller pieces of plastic. And some that claim to be biodegradable but contain plastic ingredients that are not biodegradable.

      • +2

        Doesn't that just use more water which we apparently should be trying to save?

  • +2

    We’ll even recycle your old one so it can keep doing good.

    I've had about a dozen of these "replaced" and they've never taken my old one. I either put it inside my new one to "replace" again or throw it in the little dust bin at the registers.

  • What's next.. Jute bags?

  • In the US grocery stores customers used to request "paper in plastic." This was over a decade ago, hopefully changed by now.

  • Would love to see these supermarkets providing cloth bags to carry grocery that can be used and returned for free within few days. They can tag the bags to loyalty cards or charge refundable deposit for those without loyalty card. Something similar to green caffeen initiative.

    • +1

      i'd be concerned about the cleanliness of those bags, knowing/seeing how grotty some people are and how supermarkets don't give a stuff about things like keeping baskets and trolley in reasonably hygienic condition.

      people need to be taught that they need to regularly clean their reusable shopping bags??

      • Totally valid concern unless stores sanitize the bags before passing them over to next customer

        • every time I do the Coles it will ask me to rate the cleanliness of baskets and trolleys. No matter what feedback I give, they remain in the same state

  • How about taking and using the strong reusable cardboard packing boxes located on every supermarket shelf which are destined to be recycled at the cost of the supermarket when this will be better than adequate for most occasions? Throw out your rational thinking because this fashionable plastic bag discussion point isn't about environmentalism, it is about virtue signalling to make yourself feel good.

    • Boxes would mean demand supply issue, doubt if every store would have enough used boxes to meet the demad

  • +2

    Paper is better, but it shouldn't cost more. It's less durable.

    The whole reuseable bags movement is more publicity than actually doing good. The footprint to make a 15c bag is so much more than a single use bag that you have to reuse it over 100 times just to be carbon neutral compared to 100+ single use bags. And it's highly unlikely the bag will survive that long. Sure, you can get a free replacement now, but that's a new bag with new emissions and it needs to go even further than 100 uses to offset the previous bag's premature expiry.

    The fabric based bags need to be used over 7000 times to be carbon neutral vs single use bags. I saw the numbers on a TV program.

    If you want to feel good about yourself, by all means do it. But there's a difference between feeling good and doing good.

    • +1

      Just to make it even better, the 15¢ bags are made in Germany and shipped over here…

    • Correct - but this is only with respect to carbon use. It doesn't take plastic pollution on marine life into consideration. When looking at environmental damage on marine life, nothing else comes close to plastic bags.

      If you do want to do "good", use biodegradable "plastic" bags for your bins and your own cloth/nylon bags when shopping.

  • +2

    The irony is that paper is actually worse for the environment than plastic
    http://www.allaboutbags.ca/papervplasticstudies.html

    Many believe that paper bags are more environmentally friendly than plastic bags because they are made from a renewable resource, can biodegrade, and are recyclable.
    Fact: Scientific research - Life Cycle Assessments - show that the opposite is true. Plastic shopping bags outperform paper bags environmentally – on manufacturing, on reuse, and on solid waste volume and generation.

  • https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandex#Harmful environmental impact

    Came across this…

  • "We don't need no stinking badges"

    and you don't need no stinking bags if you shop at ALDI.

  • Went in today to strathpine woolies to try to get my green bag from woolworths that has a pic of fruit on it swapped and was told " nope we don't swap that one, it needs to have the bag for good printed on it"

    my bag looks like this https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/337692/woo…

    For a few monthes these were the only bags you could get, and have never had a problem in the past, but apparently they will not replace them anymore. Kinda sucks because nearly all my bags are this type, so be warned.

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