Charge to stay for plastic bags

Tony McNeil. Photo / Wairarapa Times-Age

Auckland customers will continue to face charges for plastic bags at New World and Four Square stores despite the fee being made voluntary in Wellington stores because of customer complaints.

The company said yesterday it was monitoring customer feedback in its Auckland and South Island divisions, but would continue to charge 5 cents a bag, after the decision by Foodstuffs Wellington to make the fee voluntary.

Foodstuffs Wellington managing director Tony McNeil said the company had to respond to customer complaints.

"Some people were refusing to pay it and deciding that they might want to shop elsewhere.

"It's still our policy to charge the 5c. But if somebody says they're not happy to pay it we don't want them walking away disgruntled so we're not going to charge them."

Sue Coutts, from the anti-plastic bag campaign group GetReal, said she was disappointed by the company's backtrack.

"An optional charge is a farce," she said.

"The only people likely to pay are the ones that care enough to bring their own bags in the first place."

Ms Coutts said Foodstuffs had been "trying to implement a scheme which should have been nationwide to begin with".

"With a lack of support from the Government, a lack of support from their industry organisation, and a lack of support from their competitors, they have been left in an awkward position," she told Radio New Zealand.

However, the policy backtrack was "pretty bad timing" for the company, as Keep New Zealand Beautiful clean-up week got under way on Friday, with New World a major sponsor, she said.

Foodstuffs said yesterday that through its New World and Four Square stores, plastic bag use had dropped by 12 million bags since August 3, when it began charging the 5c fee.

Murray Jordan, Foodstuffs Auckland general manager retail sales and performance, said that was "a more than a 60 per cent reduction in comparison to August 2008".

"This is the equivalent of 2.4 million two-litre plastic bottles," he said.

"Our intention for the introduction of the charge was to drastically reduce the number of plastic shopping bags which damage our environment and we are very pleased to have achieved this result in such a short space of time."

Individual stores are donating the proceeds from the charge to local community initiatives in addition to their sponsorship of Keep New Zealand Beautiful.

Both Foodstuffs and Progressive Enterprises signed the Packaging Accord in 2004 which set the goal of reducing plastic bag usage by 20 per cent, or 144 million bags, by this year.

Figures yesterday show that the target had been exceeded, with a total reduction of 22 per cent, representing 157 million bags.

Foodstuffs also own Pak'N Save stores, where North Island stores have faced charges for plastic bags for many years.

South Island stores began charging 5 cents for the bags on August 3.

Richard Manaton, general manager strategic planning for Progressive Enterprises, said his company - which owns Countdown, Woolworths and Foodtown stores - had no plans to charge for plastic bags but had introduced several initiatives which included moves to reduce the company's carbon footprint.

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NZPA