If a medium-sized supermarket can chew through up to 15,000 bags a week, Rod Porter asks, how many would “big players” like Coles and Woolworths consume?
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Mr Porter owns the Foodworks at Lake Albert and has welcomed a call to ban the humble plastic bag from the state’s shops.
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt this week said he was ready to use the “bully bulpit” of the national government to enforce an Australia-wide ban. “Sadly, they’re (plastic bags) more prevalent than you may think,” Mr Hunt said.
Plastic bags have already been banned in Canberra, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Enforcing the ban in NSW would not disappoint Mr Porter, who said the environmental benefits would outweigh initial “teething problems” for shoppers, who might find the ban an inconvenience.
Most lightweight plastic bags are made from oil and do not degrade for decades, posing a risk to natural ecosystems such as the bush and inland waterways.
“It would be a massive issue to start with but it would help the environment a lot more. People would get used to it,” Mr Porter said.
The news that Mr Hunt had flagged a nationwide ban on plastic bags was welcomed by the Wagga Tidy Towns Committee.
Chairman John Rumens said “large numbers” of plastic bags were cleaned up at the weekend’s Clean Up Australia Day event in Wagga.
“Yes, there will be resistance. It won’t be universally welcomed,” he said. “But from the point of view from the environment, where they get into waterways and cause all these problems, it would be a sensible move.”
Wagga is susceptible to the dangers of plastic bags because of its proximity and reliance on the Murrumbidgee River, Mr Rumens said. There is the potential for plastic bags to pose a fatal risk to big fish and livestock that use the river.
According to Clean Up Australia, about 50 million bags end up as litter in Australia each year of the three billion produced.
One shopper, Lydia Baron, of Wagga, said she would “cope” if plastic bags were banned. “You’d get into a habit of not using them,” she said.
Junee woman Stella Hyde said she had been using eco-friendly bags for four years, eliminating her reliance on plastic bags. “It didn’t make a difference – except that I didn’t have a house full of plastic bags,” she said.
Barry Birkin, of Coolamon, said a ban would be a “pain” and a “nuisance”.
Wagga-based company Bee Dee Bags, an industry leader in retail packaging, was contacted for comment.
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