Planet Ark Plastic Bag Reduction

What can I do to reduce my own plastic bag usage?

Remember to take your own or buy reusable bags for your shopping.

See our Tips for Shoppers for more ideas.

What can retailers do to reduce plastic check-out bag usage in their retail outlet?

Offer reusable bag options for sale to customers. There is a wide variety on the market, including those made from paper, calico, hemp, cotton, and other materials.

See our Tips for Retailers page for more information.

Where can I purchase a reusable bag for my shopping?

You can buy reusable bags at all leading supermarkets.

The benefits of reusable bags:

• Polypropylene 'Go Green' bags (available at most grocery stores) hold twice as many items as plastic bags.
• Reusable bags are easy to carry as they have comfortable handles and some can even go over your shoulder.
• Polypropylene and other calico or cotton reusable bags will not burst under the weight of heavy shopping items such as tins or soft drinks.
• The plastic bags you don't use don't have to be produced, recycled or disposed of. Every time you use a reusable bag, you help make the world safer for wildlife, and save resources for future generations.
• There are so many designs of reusable bags on the market today that you can wear them and make a fashion statement!

What can I do with the plastic bags I have at home?

Reuse or recycle them.

• Reuse plastic bags you have accumulated at home as garbage bin liners, for clothing storage, for carrying wet things and for freezing food, or to pick up dog poo.
• Take your plastic check-out bags to participating retailers such as Coles, Woolworths, Franklins or Safeway for recycling, as these cannot be placed in the home recycling bin. To find out your local plastic bag recycling locations, go to RecyclingNearYou.com.au

How many plastic bags are used in Australia?

20 million Australians currently use around 4 billion plastic check-out bags every year.

Combine the number of bags we use every year with the time it takes for them to break down and you have a major environmental problem.

What is the life span of a plastic bag?

A person's use of a plastic check-out bag can be counted in minutes - however long it takes to get from the shops to their homes.

Plastic bags however, can take between 15 and 1000 years to break down in the environment.

What are plastic bags made from?

There are 2 types of plastic bags:

1. High density polyethylene (HDPE) - light-weight, 'singlet' bags which are predominantly used in as check-out bags in supermarkets and for fresh produce, take-away food and other non-branded applications.
2. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) - heavier, boutique style bags that are generally branded and used to carry higher value goods.

What do plastic bags cost?

It is estimated that plastic bags add an extra $850 million in costs annually to retailers in Australia. Although plastic bags may be 'free of charge', this price is built into the product cost. In Australia, the annual average cost per household for plastic shopping bags is estimated at $10-15 per year.

What are the problems with plastic bags?

Plastic bags are a contaminant of kerbside recycling in many council areas. To find out why this is a problem, go to RecyclingWeek.PlanetArk.org/recycling-info/plasticbags.cfm

Only an estimated 3% of Australia's plastic bags are currently being recycled, despite recycling facilities being available at major supermarkets. To find out your local plastic bag recycling locations, go to RecyclingNearYou.com.au

In the marine environment plastic bag litter is lethal, killing many birds, whales, seals and turtles every year. After an animal is killed by plastic bags its body decomposes and the plastic is released back into the environment where it can kill again.

A Bryde's whale died on a Cairns beach after ingesting 6 square metres of plastic - including plastic bags. Such obstructions in animals can cause severe pain, distress and death.

On land, plastic bag litter can block drains and trap birds. They also kill livestock. One farmer near Mudgee NSW, carried out an autopsy on a dead calf and found 8 plastic bags in its stomach. The loss of this calf cost the farmer around $500.

Approximately 30 to 50 million plastic bags enter the environment as litter in Australia annually. Not all litter is deliberate. 47% of wind borne litter escaping from landfills is plastic - much of this is plastic bags.

It has been estimated that it costs governments, businesses and community groups over $4 million per annum to clean up littered plastic shopping bags.

How can my town go Plastic Bag Free?

1. Designate a local champion to coordinate your town's Plastic Bag Free campaign. The coordinator can be anyone that is willing - the coordinator of the Coles Bay Plastic Bag Free Town campaign was Ben Kearney, the local bakery owner!
2. Educate retailers and residents about the issues surrounding plastic check-out bags - you can read about case studies on this website to help you.

See also Tips for Towns to go Plastic Bag Free.

How do Plastic Bags affect wildlife?

The real impact of plastic bag litter is felt on wildlife both in the marine environment and in rural areas.

Tens of thousands of whales, birds, seals and turtles are killed every year from plastic bag litter in the marine environment as they often mistake plastic bags for food such as jellyfish.

Plastic bags, once ingested, cannot be digested or passed by an animal so it stays in the gut. Plastic in an animal's gut can prevent food digestion and can lead to a very slow and painful death.

As plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to break down, once an animal dies and decays after ingesting plastic, the plastic is then freed back into the marine environment to carry on killing other wildlife.

See our Effects on Wildlife page for examples of how plastic bag littler has affected wildlife.

What is the Australian government doing to reduce plastic check-out bags?

The Federal and State Governments and the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) agreed to cut plastic check-out bag usage by 50 per cent by the end of 2005. The targets for reduction in plastic bag use were almost achieved with a 41% reduction by supermarkets and an overall reduction of 34% - from 5.95 billion down to 3.92 billion bags per year.

The South Australian government has announced a ban on single-use HDPE plastic check out bags from May 4th, 2009 and other states are working towards a phase-out or reduction in plastic bag use. For more information, go to www.byobags.com.au.

By reducing plastic check-out bags isn't that just going to increase the sale of garbage bags as many people reuse their shopping bags as kitchen bin liners?

A 90% reduction of plastic check-out bags was achieved in Ireland when a $0.25c levy was introduced on all plastic shopping bags.

Some Irish stores have increased their sales of kitchen bin liners by up to 77%. If you look beyond the percentages the actual numerical figures illustrate the tremendous success of the Irish bag levy:

• A 90% reduction in plastic check-out bag usage resulted in an estimated 1.15 billion less plastic bags being given away at the checkout every year.
• The 77% increase in kitchen bin liner sales only increased the amount sold by an estimated maximum of 70 million plastic bags.
• Therefore there is an overall reduction in plastic bag usage of over 1.08 billion plastic bags.

If the same situation was replicated in Australia i.e. a 90% decrease in plastic bag usage and a 77% increase in kitchen tidy bag sales, this would reduce the amount of plastic bags used in Australia every year by over 3 billion.

What can I use for my garbage bin instead of reusing my plastic check-out bags?

• Use old newspapers to line your garbage bin or wrap your rubbish in. Or don't use a bin liner at all - some bins have pull out buckets that you can rinse out when you have emptied out your rubbish. Once you rinse your bin, empty this water into your garden. TIP - For rinsing your bin, you can use the grey water from your washing machine, this may currently be connected to your laundry sink.
• Maximise your recycling. Nearly 50% of Australians are still confused about recycling. To find out exactly what you can recycle in your area go to RecyclingNearYou.com.au
• If possible, use a compost or worm farm for your food and garden waste. This can reduce the amount of waste in your rubbish bin by up to 50%. TIP - Whilst preparing food, have a few sheets of newspaper laid out on your bench top. Put your fruit or vegetable waste straight onto the laid out newspaper and wrap once finished. This can go straight into your compost. If you do not have a compost bin, place the wrapped vegetable waste in your garbage bin - it will then break down naturally in landfill.
• Buy non-degradable garbage bags at the supermarket. This will give you a financial incentive to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and to maximise your recycling. Purchased bin liners are generally larger than shopping bags and thus require less frequent emptying. Their use will result in reduced plastic use overall, as a large single garbage bag carries more waste than a single use plastic check-out bag.

What about biodegradable plastic check-out bags?

Planet Ark's Plastic Bag Reduction campaign is focussed on reducing the billions of plastic shopping bags used by Australians every year.

We don't want Australians to substitute the habit of using billions of shopping bags with billions of biodegradable bags.

Planet Ark believes the best current option is for people to use long-life reusable bags as this reduces the need for disposable bags altogether. The disposable bags we don't use, don't have to be produced, recycled or disposed of.

However we do understand that in some instances you may need a disposable bag option. In this instance, a biodegradable bag is the best option.

Currently Australian standards are being developed for biodegradable plastics. The first of these (commercial composting standard AS 4376) has been developed and other standards for a variety of environments (eg marine water, home composting etc) are also being developed.

These standards are in harmony with existing international biodegradability standards.

How do other countries handle the plastic bag problem?

Some countries have introduced a levy, others have even banned plastic check-out bags.

Clean Up The World produced a report in 2007 entitled 'Plastic Bag Bans Around the World' (205k pdf download).

For a brief snapshot of what has happened in some countries visit our Plastic Bag Reduction Around The World page.