A bit over a year since the shopping market stop giving single use bags.
Wondering how effective is this to the environment as opposed to their revenue.
I myself have used over 100 reusable bags, many because I forgot to bring one, and many because they break after 3 or 4 times, and many because we are out of bin liners.
How many have you spend?
Are they though? Most of the single use ones I got had or quickly developed holes in them, after a year or so in the cupboard they completely disintegrated into pieces.
Nice work mate,why should we change our habits, what's the environment ever done for us eh!
NIL
I guess you must have not used the single use bags before either?
I did use before, I'm a ozb, why pay extra. First use the trolley then move to my own bag.
I got a few when they first came out and were free, but otherwise I've only bought a small amount (probably less than 5).
We'd been using green bags/insulated bags for years, though, so even prior to the change we'd only rarely get the thinner plastic bags.
0.
Mostly use canvas bags, which you can carry on your shoulder as well.
I have a couple of the WOW ones though; sometimes you click and collect and don't select the bags, but they put it in the bags for you anyway; I keep these and reuse until they rip and are worn out.
I guess you must have not used the single use bags before either?
We did, but as sustainably as possible, a few times, then bin liner, never just recycle (or bin).
I have a stash of the nylon ones from Woolworths but sometimes still forget so still end up buying one of the 15c plastic ones. Probably 20-30 times, oops. I give them to the local op shop to re-use, or use them for carrying things like mail parcels or sports clothes. I don't throw them, or recycle them, they get used again.
On the rare occasion I forget to take a bag I'll use an empty cardboard box from the store. There's no need to waste 15c.
Zero, was using canvas/jute bags years before the free plastic bags were stopped.
This ^^ I have 4 jute bags + 2 coconut/husk fibre bags on rotation all the time. 2 in the car incase "I forget" and 2+ usually drying or in the house to be cleaned. Very suprised at the strength of the bags 10kg+ each bag easy and a bonus is if you get them dirty you can wash them. I got the coconut husk bags from vietnam about 5 years ago. Didnt even know they can be made into bags/fibres.
About 3, once on a road trip and another two when I forgot my bags. Have an emergency bag in my glovebox now.
Has China or India done anything on this front ?
If not Australia action is all in vein !
Who's/what vein? This vein must be pretty big if Australia action can fit into this vein.
that must be a bloody busy thoroughfare.
China banned plastic bags in 2008, India banned single use plastics on Oct 2. this year apparently.
NSW is still to catch up with those two progressive environmentalist states. :p
two progressive environmentalist states. :p
The 3 billion combined population (and growing) of India and China entering the middle class (consume more resources) will more than erase any of their progressive environmentalist actions.
Australia's 250 million population is not even 10% of 3 billion. The world is ending, might as well let us enjoy the bags.
You might have missed the sarcasm emoji there. :p
Australia's population is not even 1% of 3 billion. And yet our environmental footprint per person is the worst in the world. If we can't do better then they can't and the world will definitely be ending.
Ironically our per-capita environmental impact is reducing primarily because of our population growth….
@[Deactivated]: Yeah I got the sarcasm but I just wanted to stress how unimportant (and ineffective) Australia is in the big scheme of things. Like you said, not even 1%.
Incorrect. Plastic bags widely used in China.
People might ignore the ban, but the still introduced it in 2008. People ignore a lot of things there. Climate issues started to get action there before here because people had major trouble breathing. Nothing like lived experience of environmental damage to change your mind.
According to various research the policy still isn't working and has in fact led to an increase in sales of more thicker plastic bags which take longer to break down.
The real winners of course are the supermarkets who now get to charge for all their bags.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/plastic-bag-…
As for our household, we purchased quite a few long term reusable bags at the start, but if I don't have it with me as I pass a store I am now less likely to go in and impulse buy whereas I couldn't help myself before. My wife tends to remember to take a bag with her more than I do yet I do more grocery shopping…
I have also taken the trolley to the car on several occasions and unpacked my items there if I have forgotten.
The only bags we now buy these days are bin liners as we have only recently exhausted our huge stash of free supermarket ones.
Just as I thought.
The statistics from ALDI are staggering.
What they've done to reduce plastic waste in Australia by never offering single-use plastic bags is :O
With ALDI, they always leave out cardboard boxes or customers are allowed to consolidate products on shelves to get a cardboard box to put your groceries in.
At home, I take those cardboard boxes and put them into the recycle bin. Now I'm using 0 plastics when shopping at ALDI.
Yes, aldi is good. They do that by not asking do you want a bag? They just assume u don't want, or if u want, just pay n bag it yourself. Aldi is great, efficient, and smart.
I am not affiliated with aldi, and I still prefer items at ww or Coles, unfortunately.
Supermarkets fought this change hard, they're the biggest losers because rather than buying lots of bags, people that forget them BUY LESS STUFF. That's why they gave out free bags in the first place. Now they have to stock more expensive bags and most people don't buy them.
if I don't have it with me as I pass a store I am now less likely to go in and impulse buy whereas I couldn't help myself before
Which really reinforces this. Supermarkets, are not the winners here.
Yes without a doubt the biggest losers here are Wollies and Coles.
I would also bet that most of these bags hardly get any re-use.
I also do most of my shopping unplanned on the way home from somewhere (saving fuel/car wear and tear, right?) and buy less as a result.
The big 2 were already having issues with people treating them like large milk bars and just buying a few items.
I never have paid for a reusable bag and never plan to..
I guess you must have not used the single use bags before either?
No.. I used to use them all the time.. just cannot justify paying for something that was originally free..
None.
I bought 1,500 plastic bags from ebay when the supermarkets phased them out. In those quantities, they cost about 3 cents each. Each one gets a couple of uses for shopping and then gets used to line our bin and finishes up in landfill.
I remember being sent to the shops in the 1950s with a sack to get the shopping, so I appreciated it when supermarkets introduced handy hygienic plastic bags.
It's bizarre the introduced a free item that according to some costs them heaps of money instead of selling you sacks! It's almost as if the amount of things people bought on impulse when bags were free made more money than the bags.
Haven't bought any. We use a single beautiful and expensive waxed canvas and leather shopping bag which can hold an entire basket of groceries, or 8 1.5 litre bottles of iced tea, it's tough as hell. We never really buy any more than a basket. My husband also keeps a backup nylon bag which folds up to be very small, so we're covered. Next up is to find large bio-degradable bin liners when the current supply runs out (I've been using a commercial carton of 500 for many years I 'borrowed' from a previous job).
Clearly you don't have multiple children - to feed OR to ruin your nice things lol
Haven't really bought any of the reusable ones at colesworth, but have bought some reusable bags ($40!!!) which ive used throughout the year. Though I found if you use Coles eBay and buy loads of bulky (i.e. chips), they gave me 4 free reusable bags once to hold everything.
I reuse green cloth bags and buy compostible bin liners. If I forget my bag I just take the trolley back to car and load up the boot.
The better question is how many times have you skipped a bag and just carried your few things instead. I do it way way way way more now than before.
Our groceries get delivered most of the time. Every time they come in plastic bags. We now have just as many plastic bags as we had before the change. We use them for bin liners etc, but I don't think we've reduced the plastic usage at all.
2 time.
fool me once.
I bought 25 of the ~$1 ones from eBay about 7 years ago. Have not bought any since, with that many even if I leave the last few loads of groceries worth in the house I still have plenty in the car. Just had the first one wear out as I've been using about half of them much more than the other half.
Before that I used to use bags as bin liners, but 80% of the bags would go straight into another bag and out in the rubbish, because you can only use so many bags as bin liners given your waste is smaller than your shopping.
I've got a couple of freebie cloth bags I keep in my work bag as well which means I can always pick up a few extra groceries on the way home as well.
Bought a couple of durable plastic containers that can be flattened from Costco. They've been super useful. Only have about about 10-15 reusable bags all up. Also, have two Costco insulated bags. Great for storing cold stuff together.
Edit I too also just put everything in the trolley and bag/box everything when I get to the car.
Just bought a half a dozen or so sturdy material reusable bags and a couple of the insulated ones from woollies. so far I have not had to replace any of them so my answer is zero. Always put the bags immediately back into the boot of the car after unpacking groceries so I don't need to remember to bring them.
Where is the 0 option?
That'd be "Less than 10," the last option in the list.
I should rephrase, “0 needs it’s own category”
I feel like 0 means a lot more than 1-9. It suggests the person has always been able to identify an alternative without having to purchase one.
It’s been just over a year since the ban. Some people may only shop once a month*, so 9 purchases is just over half of all shops, whereas someone who shops weekly, 9 tells a different story.
*Used to work in a supermarket and saw this behaviour all the time.
I know, I just have idle time on my hands.
(Actually I don't but the procrastinator in me is pretending I do).
Lots, either forget to put in the car, or take to the shop. Also use as rubbish bags.
ITT people so incredibly afraid of change plastic bags bother them
The only change is that the bags got way thicker lol
The whole idea was pointless virtue-signalling in the first place. Same with the push against plastic straws.
Get rid of two plastic items that actually have high utility… and no realistic alternative.
While at the same time keep selling all kinds of plastic junk and other items in unnecessary plastic packaging.
With you on the straws, but the banned bags have had 0 impact on anyone with a modicum of planning ability.
The 80% reduction in usage seems to indicate that even if it didn't fix things entirely, it did help. Especially given the nature of the previous bags meant plenty ended up blowing out of public bins and into rivers. While the other plastic is junk, at least most of it doesn't blow around as easily. Plastic in landfill is a different problem, still a problem, but a different one.
Whole thing is a scam. There are still reusable bags. They're just thicker, worse for the environment and cost you money.
I do occasionally buy single use but mostly use the reusable bags. And they're NOT durable, and they're nasty to clean if you're not careful.
The whole thing is about profit and nothing to do with environmentalism and I resent that people have been brainwashed.
I don't think I've ever bought a reusable plastic bag. Always bring a fabric bag or two when I plan to go shopping, or if I just need to buy a couple things unexpectedly, I can usually shove them in my bag.
Pre plastic bag ban I would usually use my own bags anyway, now I'm just a little more careful because I know there's not a fallback if I only have two bags with me or whatever. Eg. no spontaneous 'I could buy this litre of ice cream…' because I don't have nay room in my bags left. It's been good in that respect!
Most of the time my grocery shopping involves buying 2-5 things on my way home from work, so I'm able to put everything in my backpack. If I'm doing a larger shop on the weekend, I'll grab a couple of my green bags before before I leave home, but I take the bus to/from the shops so I'll never buy a huge amount of stuff at once.
Since Coles and Woolworths got rid of plastic bags, I think I've bought a total of two reusable plastic bags when I've misjudged how much stuff I can fit in my backpack.
I keep an additional light weight cotton bag in my backpack for just such emergencies.
Like 4/5
I keep them in my car until I take groceries up to my apartment. Then whenever I take out bin bags or recycling, I put them back in my car on the same trip.
If you're one of the people that has spent more than $30 on plastic bags this year you can hand in your OzBargain card. Definitely not a bargain. You could spend $6 on half a dozen of the stronger reusable ones and save $294 over a decade!
Convenience of not having to carry bags to the shops vs cost saving bringing your own reusable ones.
An ozbargainer sometimes picks convenience over cost.
I'm struggling to think of a time when I don't have a car with me to avoid carrying them, but I'm also buying enough to need a bag, and don't have my work bag on me.
I mean, I guess having a car is convenience over cost?
But 2 a week is really at the stage where it's not so much convenience as bad planning. If you that often need an impromptu bag, it can't really be less convenient to carry one.
There are some hacks though, as per comment below, if you do a woolies pick up or delivery order, they will charge $1 for bags. But if you return any of the bags (can be one even) they will refund $1 on your next order.
@silenthillrocks: Wait, a minute ago it was convenience of not having to carry bags to the shops, now we're saving a buck by carrying bags to the shops to get a refund next time :o
I haven’t bought any and I have loads. I get them for free from woolies delivery (as they charge you $1 but then refund you). If I forget the bag I use the trolley to load in the boot.
I buy one every time I shop, it totals to under 40$ a year. I'd rather pay that then carry around bags with me
Very true , to date have never carried one with me :)
I get click and collect and purchase bags every time. In other words I use exactly as many of these bags as I used to use of the thin ones.
I wish people would stop calling the grey bags "single use". I reused mine as bin liners and for other purposes. They were much more eco friendly than the current heavy plastic bags.
OK, that's still only "two uses" for the majority of your bags. I have a few green bags that I've used every week, for the last two years. That's the difference.
It may shock you to learn that you don't need to use bin liners or the current heavy plastic bags at all and the primary 'eco' impact of the grey bags was their light weight and quantity leading to them ending up in waterways and wildlife. The heavier ones, while containing more plastic, end up in landfill mostly, which is a much smaller problem.
Got 4 reusable fabric bags in my car. Do my groceries, wheel the cart to my car, do my bagging and return the cart to the designated cart place. I am doing good for the environment and creating jobs for the cart wheelers.
There's some actual data out there that might inform everyone's anecdotal experiences.
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/09/711181385/are-…
tldr: bans on plastic bags don't reduce overall plastic bag use, but imposing a small bag for plastic bags tends to reduce overall plastic consumption. Paper and canvas bags use up a lot of energy and resources to make - more so than plastic.
FWIW, I use my bike pannier bags for shopping, even if I'm not riding my bike. Made of plastics. But 10 years old. And I haven't needed to use one single use plastic carry bag (although there's plenty of plastic in the items I buy unfortunately).
Oh Lordy yes I have way too many of these infernal bags. The last two I bought were literally one use only and tore on the trip back home. It’s a complete scam and designed to make the supermarkets more money. Why they couldn’t be legislated to use biodegradable plastic is beyond me.
I think I have bought maybe 10 bags. It is actually really easy not to forget. Or you can just carry your items to the car/home (if you have a big load, just push the trolley to the car boot and pack them in individually and when you get home just chuck them in your bags when you get home and carry them in).
Oh and I've had approximately zero bags break and I put a lot of heavy stuff in them so I dunno what is going on there.
It really isn't hard to get use to the new regime. I find it funny with people like OP. I bet they wouldn't have 100 bags if they cost $20 a pop. They'd pretty quickly remember then.
I think what is happening is that the cost of the bags isn't a big deal for them so they just buy one when they forget. Also have environmental or wastage concerns either. Or it is so token that they couldn't be bothered to be inconvenienced more than 5 minutes.
Sometimes forget to bring my reusable canvas bags. So just take a few of the green WW or clear Aldi/Colesi fresh food bag liners and triple bag the small items you need to buy.
Also been using these liners to separate the meats/seafood in my canvas bags and then reuse them at home as small bin liners - still prefer the old clear bags as liners though.
None. I have a stash of canvas tote bags I got for free during my course at uni from events like open day. I keep one handy folded inside my normal bag all the time.
If they were serious why not look at Amazon Sealed Air ( replaced the brown paper ) that often covers 50-70% of my parcels !
My kid loves them sets mines all over the house with them :)
Besides that usage I repack them in my parcels as well .
It's overkill on amazons part with the amount of sealed air bags with my orders and the orders would fit into a box half the size and still have enough room for the air bags
I keep some of them for packing if I sell something on ebay
I use the more solid $1 bags, and they last a long time - I think I've had my current ones for at least a year.
I just put them all inside one of the bags and take that one bag shopping with me.
Once I've emptied them after the shop, I hang the bags on my front door to remind me to put them back in my car. They go in the car the next time I go to it, and they stay there until my next shop.
Using this system I've never forgotten them.
I also wonder why so many bin liners are necessary - a box in a cupboard is all that's needed to temporarily store recycling, and I put soft plastics in one of my shopping bags to put in the recycling at the supermarket.
It's kinda disheartening to think that it hasn't been more successful in curbing use of disposable plastic bags, if the supermarkets are making a profit from it it's only because shoppers are doing it wrong!
Not very many, still using the Aldi bags I got years ago. But I do now buy rolls of plastic bags for the bin which I never used to buy.
Zero purchased. I made sure that before the change happened I stockpiled. Anticipate I have enough to last me until 2025.
I used to keep some of them in my cupboard when they were giving them out, after a year or two they disintegrate in the cupboard into millions of pieces of tiny plastic which is an enormous pain in the ass to clean up.
Stockpiling is really all the inconvenience of bringing the larger, stronger, easier to carry bags with none of the benefits :o
I find a lot of the comments on this thread rather sad.
Quite apart from whether "evil corporations" are "brainwashing" you or not, the real issue is that humans are causing harm to the environment through major overuse of plastics in general. The plastic bag ban should be a trigger for people to think about how they use plastic (bags or otherwise) and look to change their behaviour not because somebody is telling them to, but because the current levels of plastic use is simply not sustainable.
I also used to use the single use bags and never really thought too much about it. They were great bin liners after all - so maybe double use bags is a better description for some of them at least. However, my kids came home from school one day having had some discussion on plastics. It turned into a family discussion. I looked at these plastic bags and realised that I used them for no more than 20 mins before they were relegated to bin liner status or (most of them) ended up in the bin themselves. Each of these bags will take around 400 years to decompose. And for what? A little convenience? Can I really be that ignorant and that lazy?
So we moved to jute bags (yes, there is a high environmental cost to produce them) but I've used them every time I've shopped since the ban and will continue to do so for many years to come. At the same time, the removal of these free bags has caused me to reevaluate my relationship with plastic packaging and, as a family, we are making changes in other areas of our lives to reduce our dependence on them.
Overall, as a family unit we have reduced our plastic use by a very large margin. I have changed my attitude to plastic completely and will avoid it at all costs now. Not because I don't want to spend 15c on a bag, not because I don't like corporations "brainwashing" me, but because, quite simply, it is the right thing to do.
For all the whingers on here - get over yourselves and your selfish attitudes towards what you perceive to be people trying to "pull one over" on you. Have a think and just do the right thing for no other reason than it is the right thing to do.
This.
I wish i can upvote this a few hundred times.
It's not rocket science to bring your own bag when you go to the shop. Invest in some good quality bags, they will last you a lifetime.
They can't make a profit if you don't buy the cheap plastic bag.
Hang on a minute. The oil used to make these bags has been forming in the ground for millions of years.
We extract it and make plastic bags out of it and other recycled plastics.
They serve a short but useful life transporting shopping in an effective, hygenic and economic way, and then they get used as bin liners before going back into the ground. What's the big deal about that?
lol - I assume you are joking. I hope you are joking!
I’ve bought like one.
The scheme has worked as intended for our house, add a cost and we change our behaviour, better for environment.
I have gone from multiple plastic bags per day to pretty much none. My local woolies is less than a minute walk and i only buy maximum of 5 items at a times which is enough to carry without a bag. Then again, all i pretty much consume is steak, sardines, eggs, butter and milk. So its definitely changed my behavior.
Unfortunately our household buys the thicker bags and tosses them out every week, we may keep the odd one but most end up in the bin!
Harris Farm has the best approach: no plastic, just paper bags and cardboard trays. I’m reusing their paper bags to collect recyclable waste on my kitchen, then sort it out between the bins outside.
The Coles plastic bags are a perfect fit to line my rubbish bin, and it holds the rubbish well without leaking or breaking, unlike the old bags.
This whole BYO plastic bag is the dumbest idea to be passed through supermarket legislation
Management who approved this should be sacked and never hired again except as garbage cleaners.
From people buying the Plastic bag as a single-use, to people bringing their filthy bags for checkout people to bag.
The US have had Paper Bags since it was discovered, fashion outlets like H&M, Zara, Diesel etc have been giving out paper and cotton bags since the day of time, I was there in 2008 and bought my clothes in nice sturdy paper bags. AU hasn't even caught up yet, Myer still handing out thick plastics.
Greta is not happy
I always take 1-2 tote bags with me when I go shopping
And I always keeps 1 at least in my locker at work in case I get a message after work from the other half telling me we need this or that
I've bought about 5 but haven't in ages. Got the green Woolworths one Nd a few Coles ones. They all live in the car.
Recommend the green Woolworths. It's expensive but can be folded so it fits in your pocket.
None at all. I’ve been using reusable bags for over 15 years now.
I've been using boxes except when its "click and collect" and I've bought a lot
1) Find a decent sized cardboard box on the shelf (with very few or no items).
2) Transfer items if there are some.
3) Use that
(Admitted a security guard at Coles told me off once. "You can't use the boxes…" - told him off to the managers)
About 12 years ago we moved to the cloth bags and never looked back. Never understood people's opposition to getting rid of plastic bags tbh. Just makes sense.
I had the same thoughts but implementation was lacking maybe around 300 bags from self service .