Plastic bag ban: Whanganui doing 'just fine' without single use plastic bags

Plastic Free Whanganui is part of the Recycling Station at the Whanganui River Markets. Photo / Supplied.

A year on from the banning of single-use plastic bags in New Zealand, Plastic Free Whanganui's Deb Frederikse says the transition to alternatives has gone "very smoothly".

"They are such a polluting factor, we immediately noticed the difference when that new law came in (on July 1, 2019)," she said.

"In 2018 we did a survey in town and we estimated that 2000 plastic bags were going out of Whanganui supermarkets every hour.

"We went back and did another one and the drop was just so dramatic."

Frederikse said that with single use plastic bags a thing of the past, people were using their arms, paper bags, cartons and fabric bags instead.

"The community just needed an alternative, once they had that it was no sweat.

"Plastic-Free Whanganui started up a big project with the Whanganui Prison at Kaitoke that ran for about three years, and members of our group went out and volunteered with the inmates in their sewing room.

"Together we made over 6200 fabric bags that went back out into the community at a very low cost, or they were just given out for free."

The Government launched the Rethinking Plastics Report in December 2019, Frederickse said, so more initiatives were "in the pipeline."

"Plastic is still a huge, huge problem," she said.

"Every Saturday we run a stall at the market, and one of our themes is swapping out plastics, and putting in substitutes.

"Really simple things like using shampoo bars instead of bottles, or putting a plate over a container in the fridge instead of using plastic wrap.

"Every little bit helps, and once you get into the swing of things, it's pretty easy."

Kools Chicken owner Maree Baggott. Photo / Supplied

Marie Baggott, of Kools Chicken on Victoria Avenue, said buying biodegradable takeaway bags "was a bit like buying petrol".

"It's one of things you've can't really do without, so you don't even look at the price," Baggott said.

"I think I know buying bioproducts costs a little more but that's just fine with me, I'm not bothered at all.

"It's something you have to do, and something you should do."

Owner of Fitzies bakery on Fitzherbert Avenue, Chris Rod, said that some biodegradable products could be quite expensive.

"Unless people were spending a decent sum of money, it wasn't something I was prepared to just give away," Rod said.

"When the law came into play, I noticed that the cost of buying bio bags was pretty dear, but now that everyone has to do it, those prices have definitely dropped.

"It seems like suppliers are trying to push their eco-products and stuff, so that inevitably creates competition."