Why Plastic Bags?

The overuse of plastic bags in New Zealand is an unnecessary waste of precious resources. We use over one billion bags a year. The resources which go into making one billion plastic bags could be put to a much better use.

Plastic bag recycling rates are very low and they can only be reused a small number of times before breaking or going to landfill as a bin liner. The majority of plastic bags used in New Zealand end up in landfill, 40,000 every hour. What a waste!

Waste is a social problem. The only way we will make progress with the big environmental issues, such as climate change, is by changing our daily behaviour. Taking your own bag to the shops is about showing you care about your place and your people, and encouraging other people to care too. If people are successful in making one small change to lessen their impact on the environment they will be more motivated to make bigger changes.

The environment pays the true cost of our reliance on plastic bags. Most go to landfill but some end up in waterways and as litter. We use them for such a short time, usually only minutes, but they take up to hundreds of years to break down.

Giving away plastic bags for free makes people behave irrationally. They take plastic bags they don't really need or want simply because they are free.

Why a small charge is the answer

We agree with Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith when he says "When things are free, people tend to overuse them". If groceries were free, we'd take too many of them too. A small charge makes people think about whether they really need/want a plastic bag, and gives them an incentive to use alternatives.

Prime Minister John Keys agrees that a billion plastic bags a year looks excessive for a country of this size.

Research and experience in New Zealand and other countries clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of a small charge on the overuse of plastic bags:

• Ireland and Taiwan both reduced plastic bag usage by more than 90% through a small levy.
• Borders book stores in New Zealand cut plastic bag use by 80% in a year with a 10c levy.
• A survey of 600 Warehouse customers showed 78% supported the change, with 85% of those affected by trials at stores saying they would choose not to use a plastic bag once the charge applied.
• A Victorian trial showed 79% reduction in plastic bag use throughout a four week trial. 86% of consumers supported initiatives to reduce plastic bag use and 60% of consumers were happy to participate in the trial, based on a perception that they were "helping a good cause".
• A major Scottish retailer B&Q reduced the number of carrier bags it gives out by 82% following the introduction of a small charge. Customer research revealed that about 73% of people think the scheme is a very good or good idea, 12% are neutral, 11% think it is a bad idea and only 1.8% think it is a very bad idea.

Financial instruments are very effective at changing people's behaviour. Let the markets do their work - quality reusable bags will emerge and consumers will change their habits. Problem solved simply, now we can move on to the big stuff.

What does GetReal want from supermarkets?

Supermarkets need to take the lead in reducing plastic bag use because 700 million plastic bags are given away by supermarkets every year.

The Packaging Accord's Five Year 20% plastic bag reduction target is due to be reached by mid 2009. This is a weak target of only 4% per year, which has not required any real commitment or action from supermarkets - other than selling reusable bags in store. That it is likely to be reached is due mainly to concerned and motivated shoppers choosing alternatives.

The huge media and on-the-ground response to the launch of the GetReal "No more free plastic bags" campaign shows that the time for action has come. New Zealand supermarkets must listen to what their shoppers want and stop giving away plastic bags. Introducing a small charge will please the majority of customers who want action on plastic bags, while still allowing the minority to choose to continue to use plastic bags. It also builds on New Zealand's reputation as a country which cares about the environment.

GetReal strongly supports the money raised from a small charge on plastic bags being used to create a fund to support environmental projects. The money raised should not be used to boost supermarkets profits.

Memorable comments made about plastic bags

By political parties ~ "A billion bags is too many"

The Environment Minister Nick Smith said that New Zealanders were over-using plastic shopping bags. "We are a country of just four million people, we use over a billion bags a year, and to me that's excessive," Dr Smith said.

Prime Minister John Key agrees that "a billion plastic bags a year looked excessive for a country of this size and "we do acknowledge that there is an issue". However he is "not going to support a change by decree that sees the coffers of supermarkets swelled,".

GetReal's response

Yep, we agree.

From Industry ~ "Voluntary measures are working"

In February 2008, CEO of he New Zealand Retailers Association John Albertson said that the reduction numbers show that voluntary targets and campaigns work and that he wants to get more retailers on board.

In January 2009 he said "What we need is a holistic approach to tackling litter which is based on encouraging people to take personal responsibility for their waste and to encourage recycling."

GetReal's response

GetReal believes that everybody taking personal responsibility includes every organisation as well as every person. We do not believe that achieving a 4% per annum reduction demonstrates success of voluntary measures. If anything it demonstrates the absolute opposite. Supermarkets should not be taking the credit for changing people's behaviour, when people have been making the changes off their own bat.

From Industry ~"But people need plastic bags for bin liners"

Paul Curtis from the packaging council said "as people reduce their plastic bag consumption they start buying bin liners and kitchen tidies. Research by AC Nielsen for the Retailers Association finds there had been a 16% growth last year in unit sales of these often heavier gauge plastics last year."

GetReal's response

The logic in this argument is flawed. If you compost your food waste, it's not necessary to use a bin liner at all as the wet and sloppy waste is taken out of your rubbish bin. Their are alternatives to plastic bin liners, such as folded newspaper liners.

Even if you do choose to use a plastic bin liner, you need a lot less than one bin liner per bag full of groceries. Australian figures show the number of shopping bags used in a year dropped by 560 million, but the number of bin liners sold increased by 38 million. That's 522 million fewer plastic bags used. We need to consider the net reduction in plastic that would result from the introduction of a small charge.

Plastic bags are designed for people to carry their shopping home. The fact that people reuse them once as a bin liner should not justify their primary use nor their environmental impact. There are alternatives that have a much lesser environmental impact.

From Industry ~ "But plastic bags are only 0.2% of the waste stream"

The New Zealand Retailers association says that plastic bags only comprise 0.2% of the waste stream.

GetReal's response

This is true. We agree there are bigger issues to deal with. We believe that dealing with this very simple one first will lead the way to bigger changes both from consumers and also from industry.

From Industry ~ "But we need plastic bags to recycle"

Paul Curtis from the NZ Packaging Council said "They [plastic bags] are in great demand by recycling operators as a "clean" plastic which can be reused to manufacture a variety of products such as hygienic pallet slip sheets and underground cable covers."

GetReal's response

Only a very small percentage (less than 5% we believe) of plastic bags are recycled in New Zealand. Besides, finding a recycling market for a product that is unnecessary in the first place does not justify its use. Why use energy and resources to make a plastic bag, use it once and then turn it into something else? Recycling is at the bottom of the waste hierarchy

Useful research

(1) Effectiveness of a levy*

Trial showed an immediate and sustained reduction in plastic bag use throughout the four week trial in Victoria, Australia. On average a 79 per cent reduction in plastic bags was achieved across the three trial areas.

Trial demonstrated strong community support for the trial. A substantial majority of 86% of consumers supported initiatives to reduce plastic bag use and that 60% of consumers were happy to participate in the trial, based on a perception that they were "helping a good cause". By contrast, 13% of customers expressed concern at the cost of plastic bags resulting from imposition of the charge.

The imposition of a ten cent charge was very effective over the four week period of the trial in generating a significant reduction in plastic bag usage. Irrespective of whether the charge is positioned as 10 cents or 25 cents on a permanent basis, the Committee notes that a core group of consumers will continue to use plastic bags (10% and 6% respectively).

*A four-week trial commenced on 18 August and ended on 14 September 2008 in Victoria, Australia.The above points have been extracted from the KPMG steering committee report. Seventeen stores participated in the trial in three trial areas; Fountain Gate area (including Berwick, Hampton Park and Narre Warren), Wangaratta and Warrnambool. An independent consultant, KPMG, was engaged by the Victorian Government and ANRA to analyse the outcomes of the trial. KPMG undertook quantitative and qualitative analysis of the trial, funded by the Victorian Government and the retailers.

(2) LifeCycle Analysis of Shopping Bag Alternatives** - Key findings

• Reusable bags have lower environmental impacts than all of the single use bags
• A substantial shift to more durable bags would deliver environmental gains through reductions in greenhouse gases, energy and water use, resource depletion and litter
• The reusable, non-woven plastic (polypropylene) ‘Green Bag' was found to achieve the greatest environmental benefits
• The shift from one single use bag to another single use bag may improve one environmental outcome, but be offset by another environmental impact. As a result, no single use bag produced an overall environmental benefit
• Recycled content in bags generally led to lowering the overall environmental impact of bags
• The end of life destination is crucial, with greater environmental savings achieved from recycling all bags at the end of their useful life

**Commissioned by Sustainability Victoria, Completed by Hyder Consulting, published April 2007. Objective of the study was to pull together existing life cycle assessment date to compare the environmental impacts of shopping bag alternatives.