It seems like just yesterday that supermarkets made the big change to start charging us for our wee lil plastic bags. Overnight, we were convinced that we were going to become tote bag girlies, carting cute baskets with us to every grocery shop (she’s cute and she cares about the environment???). After all, plastic bags are icky.
However, the reality was very different. Inevitably, we’d forget our reusable bags every fkn shop and forced to choose between a material bag for $1 or a plastic bag for a measly 15 cents. After stockpiling cloth bags, many of us settled into our new reality — we’d pay for a little plastic bag when our snacks could no longer fit into our bags.
But rightfully, Coles has now thrown a spanner in the works, announcing that they will completely stop selling all soft-plastic shopping bags — both in store and online — at the end of the month.
Mother Earth is arching her back.
The supermarket baddies have said that the culling of the 15 cent plastic bags will cut an estimated 230 million plastic bags from circulation in Australia each year.
The move comes weeks after their arch nemesis, Woolworths, also announced that they would be phasing out plastic shopping bags in New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. Woolworths has already phased out reusable bags in all other Australian states.
However, reusable fresh produce bags will still continue to be available at Coles supermarkets (because the idea of letting your apples raw dog their way around your shopping basket is abhorrent, apparently).
Group Chief Operations and Sustainability Officer Matt Swindells has said customers will now be encouraged to bring their own bags.
“The most sustainable option is to bring your own reusable bag to the supermarket, but for those who forget, we will continue to sell 100 per cent recycled paper bags that can be recycled kerbside, as well as other reusable options,” he said.
He also suggested customers test out a recycled paper bag aesthetic, which he says can hold six kilos of goodies. These recycled bags cost 25 cents, while the reusable tote bags and chiller bags will cost $1 and $2.50 respectively.
I, for one, cannot wait to usher in this new era of grocery bag aesthetics. Will a cute person see me in the whole foods aisle, delicately carting a sprig of kale in my adorable The 1975 tote? Will they look back at me with lustful eyes, desperately trying to show off the right angle of their Penguin Books tote?
The possibilities are endless.
