Businesses across Wagga are busy making their final preparations ahead of the long-awaited ban on single-use plastic bags, which is coming into effect across the state on Wednesday next week.

The ban is the first step in a massive pivot away from single-use plastics, which the NSW government believes will drastically reduce the amount of litter polluting the Australian environment.

James Griffin, the NSW Minister for Environment, said he hoped everyone could recognise the importance of phasing out the problematic items.

"Single-use plastic is used by many of us for just a few convenient minutes, but it remains in our environment for many years, eventually breaking into microplastics," he said.

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According to Mr Griffin, single-use plastics make up 60 per cent of all litter in NSW.

"By stopping the supply of problematic plastic in the first place, we're helping prevent it from entering our environment as litter, or going into landfill," he said.

Sole traders who break the new rules could be fined up to $11,000, while corporations who fail to comply with a stop notice could he hit with a hefty penalty of $275,000.

The ban on lightweight single-use bags will be followed by bans on other problematic plastics, such as cutlery and plates, in November.

Bargain Buys Wagga manager Michelle Phillips said she was hopeful customers would embrace the switch to paying for reusable bags.

"We're hoping that we'll just switch over really easy and not have to have any arguments," she said.

Ms Phillips said her business had been preparing for the switch for almost a year and only a few single-use plastic bags were still in circulation in the store.

"Most of the bags we've been getting lately have been reusable for about 12 months and it's only the really small single-use ones that we have still been using," she said.

"The change doesn't bother me at all. You go to Coles or Woolies and you've got to pay 15 cents for a reusable bag or you just take your own - it's simple and there's no real issue."

But for some small businesses, abandoning their tried and true single-use plastic bags is proving more difficult.

Roll Viet owner Harry Le said his packaging orders would increase by "10 or 15 per cent" when he made the switch, putting extra pressure on his business which was already struggling to manage rising wholesale costs.

"With everything rising it has put pressure on us," he said. "I think it's a good change but the way the information has come is a bit rushed."

"We can't put the expenses on the customer straight away because we are just a small business and if we put the prices up too much we will lose customers and lose money."

This sentiment was shared by Original Flame Grilled Chicken owner Maurise Lam, who said he had also faced issues with customers refusing to use wooden cutlery.

Eleni Petinos, the NSW Minister for Small Business, said more than 40,000 businesses were receiving support to make the change.

"The NSW government has worked with stakeholders to support small businesses to understand how they will be affected, how to comply with new laws and what alternatives they can use to single-use plastics," she said.

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