Optional plastic bag 'charge' won't Keep New Zealand Beautiful

The Get Real campaign team was astonished to hear that Foodstuffs Wellington stores had abandoned the 5c charge for plastic carry bags within a month of introducing it.

“An optional charge is a farce. The only people likely to pay are the ones that care enough to bring their own bags in the first place.” said Sue Coutts from the GetReal campaign team.

“There will always be a few people that complain about any change. They don’t want to pay and the charge creates an incentive to change their behaviour. That’s the whole point of introducing it.”

The Warehouse, which charges 10c a bag, reported handing out 20 million less plastic bags last year, a 50% reduction on the previous year. Foodstuffs have already reported the majority of customers being supportive of the company introducing the small 5c charge.

 “Anecdotal evidence suggests a 50% reduction in bags used in our local supermarkets since the charge was introduced” said Sophie Ward of Sustainable Wanaka.

“It is pretty bad timing to change the policy just as we go into the Keep New Zealand Beautiful clean up week with New World a major sponsor.” said Sue Coutts.

“It will be interesting to see how many plastic bags turn up in the Keep New Zealand Beautiful clean ups being done all over New Zealand in the next couple of weeks.”

Ends

Contact: Sue Coutts 027 322 9675 or sue@wanakawastebusters.co.nz

About Get Real: GetReal was set up by a bunch of passionate Kiwis who care about good design and waste reduction www.getreal.org.nz  

Why are we campaigning about this? Putting a charge on plastic shopping bags leads to big reductions in the number of bags taken by shoppers. It has worked all over the world. It could work here in NZ too.