Page 4566 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 31 October 2018
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Of course, we can all smile in a somewhat superior manner when hearing the outcry from New South Wales consumers when Coles and Woolworths announced earlier this year that they would, then would not, and then would again, be phasing out plastic shopping bags. New South Wales, however, still does not have a state-wide ban.
Since 2011 Canberrans have adjusted to new shopping arrangements, although some are better than others, and supermarkets have been clever enough to realise that people will always forget to bring bags from home, so they do a roaring trade with the heavier plastic bags, as well as the other apparently more acceptable insulated plastic bags.
That dependence on heavier plastic bags started me thinking earlier last year about just how effective the plastic bag ban has been in the ACT. The ACT’s plastic bag ban was reviewed in 2012 and 2014, including through community surveys. The 2014 survey reported that more than 70 per cent of people surveyed did not want the ban overturned; and about 60 per cent of Canberra grocery shoppers supported the ban for environmental reasons and agreed that it had a positive effect on the environment.
However, reports in the same year also suggested that the use of heavier “boutique” plastic bags had increased, and that while 26 million lightweight bags were distributed in 2011, by 2013 that had transferred to four million boutique bags. By weight the story was not so impressive. Before 2011 182 tonnes of single-use plastic was sent to landfill, and by October 2013 that had only dropped to 114 tonnes of the boutique plastic. At the time there were calls for only compostable plastic or reusable bags to be authorised for use because, it was urged, the thicker plastic bags remain as pollution for a much longer time.
I went looking for more recent data than the 2012-13 review, because I wanted to understand whether the ban had been a benefit or just a placebo to make us feel better about our environmental credentials. I asked questions in both annual reports and estimates hearings last year, and again in estimates this year. I also lodged questions on notice, but little information was forthcoming.
I was therefore pleased that the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, Dr Kate Auty, finally released her review of the ACT plastic bag ban in September this year. While the news is not all good, we at least now know what the impact of the plastic bag ban has been and whether there is a community appetite to do more.
We know that the ban has reduced plastic bag use by over 55 million bags, and we have reduced plastic bag consumption by 60 per cent, or 1,131 tonnes. But the review also found that with a growing population comes increased consumption, and if we do not increase our efforts we are moving towards the same pre-ban levels of 2011 and could reach that in less than two years. I note that the commissioner has proposed a number of recommendations, and I presume that at some point in the future these recommendations will be considered and responded to by the government.
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