Plastic Bag Surrender !

It was a noble aim to rid the planet of those pernicious plastic bags that are fouling the ocean and killing wildlife.  The aim was to train the public to bring a re-useable bag with them when they went shopping and so the duopoly which controls the greatest share of the grocery market announced the end of free plastic bags at their checkouts.

Woolworths went first with that ban coming into place in June, followed by Coles on July 1.  Bewildered customers were offered a bigger and stronger plastic bag to contain their shopping at a cost of fifteen cents each. Many simply rebelled and Woolworths began giving away those fifteen cent bags " until the concept of re-useable bags takes hold ".  By the start of August, Coles was following suit.

Strangely, that is the retail experience here in New South Wales.  Single use plastic bags are banned by legislation in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, ACT and NT.  Victoria plans to implement a ban by 2019 and that leaves this state as the only one to leaving plastic bag removal a voluntary issue.

It really boils down to the amazing power of Sydney shoppers to dictate their wishes to the mandarins who head the Woolworths and Coles duopoly.  They nervously watch their bottom lines and at the first sign of a shopper revolt hoist the white flag and surrender.  This was despite the month of June seeing an amazing number of people bringing sturdy bags to the shops and adopting the re-useable bag principle.

Unless the New South Wales government bites the cherry and brings in a statutory ban it is likely that those fifteen cent bags will simply replace those single use bags and get absorbed into the grocery cost structure.  Add a few cents here and there to items on the family grocery shopping list and that added cost is covered.

Some may even argue that it solves the problem because the replacement bags are a brighter colour and avoid the appearance of jellyfish in water, which was a problem with sea animals mistaking single use bags for food.  Hopefully, these more expensive bags are biodegradable and will not take centuries to rot away in landfills.

The fact that the single use plastic bag was voluntary in this state put Coles and Woolworths at a big disadvantage. All their smaller competitors avoided taking the plunge and they were left to take the blame from their customers.  The media gleefully recorded customer outrage at the checkouts and it is likely that the public would have fallen into line had the bag withdrawal  been allowed to continue a little longer, as it has in other states.

It is unlikely that Coles and Woolworths will try again in this state without a legislative ban. That bigger, brighter, sturdier bag looks likely to be permanently accepted as a necessity of doing grocery business, and there is absolutely no incentive for the retailers of other commodities to take up the challenge.   The danger is that pressure will build in the other states to drop the ban in the interest of uniformity.