Supermarkets and bags

"Moves by major supermarkets to stop providing free plastic bags could save these businesses more than $170 billion per year in direct costs, while potentially creating a $70 million revenue stream, but may only have a small impact on the environment." ABC News

Honestly you just can't win can you? Here we have the big supermarket chains announcing that they are phasing out free plastic bags in the next 12 months and already the ABC - and other media are focussing on the negatives. Surely this is a step forward for the environment, even if they do stand to save substantial sums of money and bags and make money from selling them. It's a start, so let's applaud them for it. Surely we don't want them to continue to provide them? And if they are better off commercially then maybe some of that gain will be passed on to the consumer in lower costs. Me I'm an optimist.

I also read another article that went on about how hard it was to change people's habits. They point to various overseas examples to back their claims:

"Even where use has been dramatically reduced, the environmental impact has been mitigated by unintended consequences such as a 65 per cent increase in the purchase of bin liners, and the disposal of re-usable bags." News Limited

And I guess they are right about the use of bin liners - not sure what we shall use in our house as I confess we do use recycled supermarket bags at the moment. But as far as the media is concerned it's all doom and gloom - and even though some of their statements may be true I have to say that I see it as a major step forward.

Breaking the habit of using new plastic bags is easy after all. If there's no choice there's nothing you as a customer can do about it. Recycling your old plastic bags will only be feasible for a while. The French hypermarkets have been banning plastic bags for some time. When I was talking about the hypermarkets in my holiday blog I forgot to mention that all of them have banned free plastic bags in which to put your purchases. You have to provide your own bags or boxes. Well you can purchase a reusable or thicker plastic bag from them (some of them are quite nice) - which, of course, backs up the statement that they will make money from you anyway. But I'm OK with that. If none of the hypermarkets provide free plastic bags - and none of them do in France - then you are not going to shop elsewhere because they will give you plastic bags. Besides in France you don't normally have a lot of choice as to which hypermarket to go to. The smaller supermarkets, by the way, do the same thing. And Aldi has always done it here - as does Bunnings. If you don't have the choice then you just can't use plastic bags. People have adapted easily to this in Aldi, so why can't they do the same at Woolworths and Coles? Worst case scenario is you just fill up your trolley and then transfer the contents to your car. Habit broken by force really.

These media commentaries cite Target's abortive attempt at charging for plastic bags - which, it seemed to me, entirely missed the point. Why would you pay for something that was previously free? You might be willing to pay for a sturdier reusable bag - as many of us have - the green bags, but not an ordinary plastic bag. And yes they are made of plastic too - but they last a lot longer. I don't think we have had to discard any of ours so far and we have had them for years now. Besides surely eventually these could also be phased out in favour of 'natural' bags. I think I am beginning to see hessian bags on sale in the supermarkets for example - though maybe they are plastic pretending to be hessian. In French markets there are lots of stalls selling beautiful shopping bags. I used to think it was just something aimed at the tourists but maybe not. Maybe it's an attempt to get people to use naturally made bags. Sure they cost a whole lot more, but they also last a whole lot longer. And you can express your personality a little bit too.

The French hypermarkets also use a biodegradable plastic bag for their fresh fruit and vegetables. It's a tiny bit annoying as it's flimsy and not easy to open, but I would imagine this is much better for the environment. Why can't we do that here? I do try to reuse my plastic bags when I go to the market, but eventually they develop holes and then I do throw them out. Though my council does recycle them.

But then I guess I am one of the educated and environmentally aware. It's another us and them thing isn't it? I guess there is a whole mass of people out there who are going to find some way of stuffing up the possibly good intentions of the supermarkets. But again I do think it has to be at least a step forward in the right direction. Keep your reusable bags in your car and then you are less likely to forget them - another thing the media pointed the finger at. Please can we not immediately move into negative mode when something that fundamentally improves our attitudes is proposed.

Tiny steps.