Commonsense bans all single use shopping bags NOW

Commonsense is phasing out single use shopping bags – starting from now!

‘We were really delighted that both the major supermarkets announced they were introducing a ban – in a year’s time. We haven’t used plastic shopping bags for over a decade – instead we provide corn starch bags’ says co-owner, Marion Wood. ‘But even these bags aren’t good enough as they require commercial composting and many of them end up in the landfill. So we piloted phasing out all single use shopping bags in our Kapiti store – and it works so we’re rolling that out across all our stores. Fewer single use shopping bags creates a win-win-win situation – it means a win for the landfills and the oceans, a win for our customers and a win for fair trade reusable bags‘

The company is a pioneer of ethical trading and introduced a charge on plastic shopping bags a decade ago. ‘Most of our customers have been very responsive and bring their own bags, or take a box for their shopping. But we hesitated to go that last step because we don’t want to inconvenience customers who don’t have their own bag with them. The break-through for us was provided by Boomerang Bags, who make bags for people to borrow and bring back – what a great idea!’

'We are really excited to support Commonsense and create a shift in relying on disposable bags across Wellington', says Sarah Child of Boomerang Bags Wellington.

Boomerang Bags has been able to provide some bags to help Commonsense get started. ‘But we’re very aware that these bags are made by volunteers; so we’ve supplemented the supply with Commonsense Borrow Bags – which are fair trade jute bags from Trade Aid. We looked at getting cheap re-usable plastic shopping bags, but decided they were still part of the problem. . Our jute Borrow bags are made from natural fibres and the Boomerang Bags are made from recycled cloth, says Marion Wood.

ENDS

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