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Fremantle Mayor's challenge to retailers: ban those plastic bags

WITH two metropolitan supermarkets going plastic bag free from August 4, Fremantle Mayor Peter Tagliaferri is calling on other retailers to match their efforts.

IGA Mosman Park and IGA Cottesloe will no longer provide plastic bags to customers, instead offering a variety of re-usable shopping bags.

A month-long Victorian trial involving 10 supermarkets also begins in August with shoppers charged between 10 and 25 cents for each plastic bag used.

Four years ago, the City of Fremantle made a commitment to becoming a plastic bag free city, asking shoppers to reduce their use of plastic bags while urging retailers to offer alternatives.

“The city had a goal to be plastic bag free by 2008, in line with a voluntary agreement established between the National Environmental Protection Council and the Australian National Retailers’ Association,” Mayor Tagliaferri said.

“With little Federal or State Government support, we took on the task of promoting a change in attitudes towards plastic bag use ourselves.

“You only need to see the amount of people now carrying the green bag alternatives, which highlights the positive changes the community has embraced in that time.

“A retailers’ association report has shown supermarkets across Australia have reduced plastic bag use by 45 per cent since 2002, meaning there are now 3 billion less in circulation.

“But the best way to effect a behavioural change is through regulation, or a fee on plastic bags, to discourage their use – or banning them all together.”

Mayor Tagliaferri points to the success of the Irish example, where a levy on plastic bags was introduced 3½ years ago.

“People don’t actually ask for plastic bags any more and the shops also provide alternative bags for customer use,” he said.

“Our aim is to reduce plastic bag use by getting everyone to realise there are viable alternatives that have a lower environmental impact and cause much less litter.”

Mayor Tagliaferri has issued a challenge to retailers across Fremantle and WA to become plastic bag free as soon as possible.

“Supplying plastic bags is a business expense with no financial return,” he said. “But small businesses can sell their own alternatives at a profit and advertise themselves on the bags at the same time.

“When you look at it from that logic, it makes no sense for retailers to keep using plastic bags.

“Australians use more than 10 million plastic bags a day, throwing away about 7150 recyclable plastic bags a minute, with 429,000 dumped in landfill every hour.

“Most customers now prefer plastic bag alternatives because they care about protecting the environment – and they want to shop at retailers who are also doing their bit to help.

“By taking away the plastic bag temptation completely, we can eliminate this environmental problem for future generations. The bottom line is that, if plastics bags aren’t there, people won’t use them.”