1st April 2009

GetReal Plastic Bag Campaign hits a nerve

Since the launch of the national GetReal Plastic Bag campaign on the 29th March, the campaigners have been inundated with media interest and their website has been signing up concerned Kiwis at a rapid rate.

"We knew people were concerned about this issue but the huge response has really surprised us" GetReal director Gwilym Griffith-Jones said today.

"People are obviously looking to take action and are fed up with the current method in place to bring about meaningful change. Even Prime Minister John Key weighed in on the issue saying a billion plastic bags a year looked excessive for a country of this size and that "we do acknowledge that there is an issue"."

"With support rising for action, we are not surprised that the only voice of dissent has been The Packaging Council, an industry body with a history of ineffective initiatives."

"The Packaging Council promotes themselves as 'the impartial voice of industry'" says Griffith-Jones "well GetReal is the very partial voice of creating positive change for Kiwis and getting plastic bags off our roadsides, out of our surf and beaches and out of our rivers and the Packaging Council has no answers and is making almost no progress."
Angus Ho who has been campaigning about the plastic bag issue for over eight years in Hong Kong and New Zealand is not surprised by the negative response "in all the countries that have passed legislation around the issue industry groups have been scared of change where as individual companies have embraced and profited through the reduced waste and positive public relations from implementing a charge per bag".

In an article on the NBR website the Packaging Council's main concern seems to be that Kiwis will no longer have free plastic bags to line their rubbish bins. The Packaging Council refers to the success of their five year plan to reduce plastic bags by 20% by June 2009.

Sophie Ward, General Manager of Sustainable Wanaka, said "This is not what I call success. 20% over five years, what's that 4% per year?  It's nothing more than a token effort. Ireland and Tai Wan successfully reduce of 90% and 80% respectively of plastic bag after introduced the levy."

Ms Ward said she has seen "very limited evidence of Foodstuffs and Progressive implementing their 'Make a Difference' campaign. The survey Angus did in 2007 showed 80% of people believe supermarket chains should be doing more to cut down on the number of plastic bags they give out. 90% of survey participants believed that a legislated per bag levy, would dramatically cut down the current excessive bag use."

"Locally, even with the support of our well funded campaign group and quite a strong commitment to the issue, our supermarket has not consistently implemented the policies outlined in the Make a Difference campaign.  For example, staff still automatically pack four items into a plastic bag."

Ms Ward also said that the bin liner argument is flawed.

"If you compost your food waste, it's not necessary to use a bin liner at all. But even if you do use a bin liner, you need a lot less than one bin liner per plastic bag full of groceries. There are 1.14 billion bags dumped in NZ every year, that means every kiwi dumps 5.4 bags per week or a family of 4 would dump 21 bags a week, it means nothing but overuse."

"The whole bin liner argument is a red herring by The Packaging Council to stop positive change. Our grandparents didn't have plastic bags to use as bin liners, and they managed just fine. They say 'voluntary efforts make the most sense' - well we have evidence they do not."

Australian figures show the number of shopping bags used in a year dropped by 560 million, but the number of bin liners sold increased by 38 million. Net effect 522 million fewer plastic bags in circulation.

The GetReal team agree that right now the last word has to go to the Honorable Dr Nick Smith "When things are free, people tend to overuse them".

The open letter on the GetReal website to Foodstuffs and Progressive Enterprises can be signed at www.getreal.org.nz until mid April.

The Get Real campaign is supported by:

·        Bags Not (West Harbour, Dunedin)

·        Community Recycling Network (national group of community recycling operators)

·        Environschools Canterbury      •  Golden Bay Bag Ladies

·        Kiwi Plastic Bag Concern                    •   Mana Community Enterprise (Porirua)

·        No Plastic Bags in New Zealand (national group, based in Wellington)

·        The Dunedin Secondary Students Forum (supported by DCC and Sustainable Dunedin)

·        Sustainable Wanaka                            •  Sustainable Otautahi Christchurch

·        Wanaka Wastebusters

ENDS

© Scoop Media