It’s now several months since supermarkets stopped providing free plastic bags for groceries in South Australia.
Originally being against the supermarket ban, where do i stand now?
The end of supermarket bags - the good
1.. Having your own bags means that you have stronger and more durable bags - meaning they don’t disintegrate before you get to the car.
2.. Being larger with a firmer base and rectangular shape makes it easier to use less bags and pack them into the car or van more easily.
The end of supermarket bags - the bad:
1… The supermarkets made thousands in profits from selling people the bags - you had to pay for them, and the supermarkets made yet another profit from you.
2… Staff tend to over stuff the bags, sometimes so heavy it obviously becomes an occupational health and safety issue when you try to carry them or lift them.
3… When you forget to take your heavy duty supermarket bags with you, you pay 15 cents for a paper or strong plastic bag - the latter of course being more dangerous to the environment than the free ones ever were.
4… Apart from buying the bags, you also have to buy the rubbish bin liners that most of us used the old free supermarket bags for. So the supermarkets are selling record numbers of rubbish bin liners, many of which look identical to the old supermarket bags, just a bit stronger and more colorful - cant see how this is helping the environment.
5… The strong sturdy bags we pay about $1 for, are made of plastic by the way, strong plastic bags that don’t break down. Except I’ve found one or two splitting at the seams, one of the zips on one of the cold goods carry bags has broken, paid about $3 to $5 for it.
6… Buy more than your bags will carry, and you are forced to buy more bags, and store more bags. Find a lot of good specials? Great, but then the supermarket reaps more out of you when you have to turn round and buy more bags to carry your specials in.
7… Cleanliness - yep with the disposable plastic bags this wasn’t really much of an issue, but with people using their own bags, their uncleanliness becomes transferred to the supermarket people who pack the bags, and who then touch your groceries and your bags. Occupational health safety issue that.
Conclusion:
Overall, my finding is quite negative, as you can see. Bags are costly, less environmentally friendly, and you end up having to buy plastic bags to line your rubbish bins. Forget to take your main bags, rather frequently actually, and you have to buy more main ones or pay for cheaper ones.
An environmental nightmare with plastics that wont easily break down, consumers pay more to go shopping, supermarkets reap a a great profit and no longer provide the free service saving them money as well.
As the plastic bags are thrown away, an environmental disaster may get unleashed. Sooner or later, those cheap 15 cent bags and the broken heavy duty bags are going to find their way to the oceans.