Local shoppers back state bag ban
Grace Griffith
IF you get handed a lightweight plastic bag with your shopping from now on, shop owners could face a whopping fine of up to $49,500.
However, the single-use plastic bag ban – which came into effect last Friday, November 1 – hasn’t fazed local retailers or customers.
In fact, many businesses support the ban, some even refusing to hand out plastic bags long before the ban came into effect.
Among those were Leongatha Health Foods, Lyn Rose Boutique, also in Leongatha, Dumbalk’s Blue Tree Honey Farm and Yarram’s Barber Shoppe Collectables.
“In the three years I’ve owned the shop I’ve always used paper bags,” Tracey Ryan, owner of Lyn Rose Boutique, said.
Mrs Ryan said she noticed more customers were bringing their own re-usable bags.
This was echoed by Lyndall Sturtevant, owner of Bakers Delight Leongatha.
She said an average 3400 lightweight plastic bags were being handed out at her business each month before 2018.
Once she introduced a charge for plastic bags, she noted a dramatic drop in plastic bag use from 3400 bags to 357 per month.
“People are becoming more aware of it and are changing their habits,” she said.
But due to a national cut back in plastic bag usage, Bakers Delight has been left with an excess of lightweight plastic bags.
Elise Gillespie, joint CEO of Bakers Delight Australia, said the company currently has 1.4 million bags of 35 micron in stock – just one micron too many to meet legal standards.
But instead of returning the bags, which would only be turned into more plastic bags, the government has given the bakery franchise a grace period until the end of March 2020.
On the horizon for Baker’s Delight is a reusable bread bag that can be tossed into the washing machine.
Many South Gippsland consumers backed the ban on The Star’s socials, saying “good riddance” to single use bags.
Several followers commented the next step was doing away with plastic packaged goods.
“Everything we buy is over wrapped and packaged. We need to decrease plastic packaging and change the way we make purchases,” Linda Morse said.
“It’s the beginning in a change of attitudes…Removing single use plastics from the equation is a positive step.”
Anna Andronaco Riccardi said: “Eventually shops wholesalers and factories will stop wrapping in plastic also. Everything wrapped in plastic will stop. We have to evolve. This is the first step – there are many more steps to come and they are for the better.”
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Nov 6 2019. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
