Retailers' deal sees bag totals melting

Plastic bag use fell by 22 per cent in the five years to July. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

A voluntary agreement by big retailers has cut the number of plastic shopping bags by 157 million over five years - almost a quarter of the original total.

Charging for shopping bags, a new strategy by some retailers, had only just begun when the results were counted.

Figures released today by the Packaging Council show shoppers at supermarket chains Foodstuffs NZ and Progressive Enterprises NZ and cut-price retailer The Warehouse reduced the number of bags they used by 22 per cent in the five years to July.

The agreement has now ended, but Foodstuffs and The Warehouse have stepped up efforts by introducing a charge for plastic bags.

Paul Curtis, executive director of the Packaging Council, which represents retailers and manufacturers on packaging issues, said more than half the reduction was achieved in the past two years.

"Our message has been very simple; if you don't need a plastic bag, don't take one, and remember to take your reusable bag when you shop," he said.

Mr Curtis said giving out fewer bags, combined with moves to make bags more lightweight, had cut the total amount of plastic used in shopping bags by 28 per cent - equivalent to 34 million two-litre plastic drinks containers.

The bag numbers were collected before Foodstuffs introduced a 5c charge for bags last month, and included only three months of The Warehouse's 10c a bag charge.

Sophie Ward of packaging reduction campaign GetReal said the charges were likely to deliver a much larger reduction than was achieved by the voluntary agreement.

"Twenty per cent [reduction] was pretty minimal, particularly over five years, but evidence shows that ... if you have to pay for something you don't need, you are less likely to use it," she said.

Ms Ward said she spent an hour watching customers in Wanaka New World after the 5c charge was introduced and estimated people took half the number of bags as before.

Her study was not scientific, but it was backed up by anecdotal reports, she said.

Plastic shopping bags make up only a small proportion of waste sent to landfill but once there they stay there for decades.

The Warehouse, which began charging 10c a bag in April, said two weeks ago that the number of plastic bags handed out plunged to 27.4 million in the year to July 31 from 47.3 million in the previous 12 months.

Foodstuffs, which owns New World, has not yet released numbers on the effect of the charge.

However, a spokesman said the company was selling a lot more reuseable bags. Progressive Enterprises (Foodtown, Woolworths and Countdown) has resisted pressure from GetReal to charge for bags.

In Britain, leading supermarkets cut plastic bag use by nearly half in three years, announcing this year that they were giving out 418 million (48 per cent) fewer plastic bags a month than they were three years ago.

The seven biggest British supermarket chains narrowly missed a target under a voluntary deal to reduce the number of carrier bags by half.

The agreement between New Zealand retailers was to cut bag use by 20 per cent.