I was browsing through some of the NZ sites of groups working to reduce the number of plastic shopping bags we use – No Plastic Bags in New Zealand and Plastic shopping bag free. I thought it would be an interesting personal exercise to see how many businesses are asking customers if they want plastic bags or not. Although I usually say no to plastic bags I’ve never thought about how many bags that ‘saves’. I’ve therefore set up a separate page “Say no to plastic bags” where I can keep a record of the transactions I have with shops and the bags I say no to. At the end of the year I’ll be able to see how many bags I have refused and can calculate how many bags we could be saving as a nation if I am viewed as an average person.
I still find I want bags for things around the house so I will need to get organized this year and sort out some alternatives – paper bags, biodegradable bags. Of course I would have to pay for these while most shops give me plastic bags for free. There have been suggestions that building in a charge for plastic bags, such as Pak n Save does, would help reduce the number of plastic bags as once you charge for an item consumers become more reluctant to take that item when there is a cheaper alternative such as bringing your own bags when shopping.
PS I just found an article published today by the National Business Review regarding the Packaging Accord. Surely we can do better than a reduction by one fifth?