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Francesca Rudkin: New Zealand is ready to be plastic-bag free

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Sun, 30 Jun 2019, 12:36PM
Tomorrow marks the beginning of the official plastic bag ban. (Photo / NZ Herald)
Tomorrow marks the beginning of the official plastic bag ban. (Photo / NZ Herald)

Francesca Rudkin: New Zealand is ready to be plastic-bag free

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Sun, 30 Jun 2019, 12:36PM

Plastic Free July starts tomorrow. That’s when the officially titled Waste Minimisation (Plastic Shopping Bags) Regulations 2018 comes into effect.

From Monday, all businesses in New Zealand who sell goods will no longer be able to offer customers a single-use plastic shopping bag under 70 microns in thickness.

What’s 70 microns? Good question. To put it into perspective, the Countdown supermarket plastic bags you had to be able to buy when they stopped giving us free shopping bags are 55 microns - and those were pretty thick.

When I hear the words single-use shopping bags I think of a talk back caller over the summer who in a state of frustration told me there’s no such thing as a single use plastic bag! And, she’s right, although she hung up on me before I could tell her that.

But it’s time to move on, and I think we’ll be just fine without them.

Amazingly, supermarkets have played an important job in training us up for this momentous day by going early, enjoying the positive PR.

It does come with its problems, though.

I’m sure you’ve had a similar experience to me when you’ve popped into the supermarket to get a couple of things, then grabbed a few extra things, and then at the checkout realise you’ve forgotten your bag.

I’ve had to crawl under a car to retrieve a couple of lemons I dropped in the carpark. I’ve had a considerably more embarrassing experience with an onion. Don’t ask; I won’t tell you.

On Thursday I ran into a mall to grab some bits and pieces for the kids, I didn’t have a bag and wasn’t offered one in any of the shops I went to. I did manage to balance, for the most part, my purchases as I whipped in and out of shops, but I did have a growing concern I was going to be apprehended for shoplifting. I certainly looked suspicious, and from Monday you probably will too.

When the government asked for public consultation on the issue in 2018, almost 10,000 submissions showed that New Zealanders want less plastic waste; 92 per cent of submitters agreed we should no longer have single-use plastic shopping bags in New Zealand. 

Yip, seems to me we’re ready folks.

 A couple of pointers though:

- If you’re at the supermarket tomorrow and wondering how you’re going to deal with a potential onion containment issue - you’ll be relieved that bags without a handle, like the ones you put your fruit and veggies in, are exempt. 

-  And it's not like we're short of plastic bags - I’ve suddenly noticed how many loaves a bread an active, growing 12-year-old boy goes through a week. Bread bags are being used more in our house - and the spares we give to friends to pick up their dog poo. 

But mostly, my big realisation is that now the training and adjustment period is over, it already doesn’t feel like we’ve gone far enough. So, while it might seem like a big step forward tomorrow, it’s really just the beginning.

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