Today the 20th June 2018 marks the end of plastic bags in Woolworth’s across Australia with Coles set to follow very shortly. The move is shaped as an environmentally friendly step for the future of Australia. How ever could this be a step supermarkets have taken to get some profit back by selling re usable bags?

Here is Woolworth’s current reusable bags that can be purchased at the check-out:

The cheapest option is 15 cents which consists of recycled plastics, I have one of these and its larger and certainly stronger than the old plastic bags which are now outlawed. It costs 99 cents to get a light fabric bag which is a decent option should you need some strength in what your bag carries.

Essentially if you go into the supermarket today, tomorrow or any of the following days im sure you’d be caught out and would need to buy one or several of these paid varieties. Whilst it was advertised somewhat I do think the effort was low to let consumers know the free, original bags that have been in supermarkets forever are now gone.

A surprise addon to your total

Shocked consumers having to fork out 30-45 cents to buy some of these bags because they simply have no option would be a common case. So Woolworth’s made the switch to being environmentally friendly and no longer having to purchase boxes on boxes of plastics bags to now getting money for having people do basic grocery shopping.

It would have been great to see the free alternative bags being handed out leading up to this bag free event but that wasnt the case. Woolworth’s just licked their lips at the potential for people to cough up 15 or 30 cents more at the registers.

I actually found it slower when I went through the self-serve checkout today, I had to unravel my reusable bag then have to keep re adjusting it and propping it up in the bagging area in between scanning items. They just don’t sit well or are styled to suit where the old plastic bags were stored. Which makes peak hour at Woolworth interesting from now on.

Goodbye bin liners

The fact that the old plastics bags became famous for being great bin liners is another issue. Alternatives like newspaper? have been floated or im sure that a company will start selling bin liners suspiciously looking like the old plastic bags. Making everyone in on it for a dollar.

Being eco-friendly and green is great and I support that but it’s how this was done that a problem. Cheaper alternatives and handing out free reusable bags would be great and good news is that can still be done. If the big companies can show and prove that going green isn’t going to hurt or frustrate consumer then its going to make decisions like this easier in the future.