Coles says it has committed to phase out soft-plastic shopping bags in-store and online by the end of next month, as the supermarket aims to reduce unnecessary plastic packaging at the checkout.
This comes just as the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) said that it will not be extending the 12 May deadline for supermarkets Coles and Woolworths to remove 5200 tonnes of soft plastic waste from the now-defunct REDcycle return-to-store recycling scheme.
The supermarket giant says its remaining supply of soft-plastic bags will be run down in the coming weeks before it ceases the sale of all soft-plastic bags by the end of June, a move the supermarket claims will remove 230 million plastic bags from circulation in one year.
Coles Group chief operations and sustainability officer Matt Swindells said the decision to end the sale of soft-plastic bags nationwide, both in-store and online, was an important step in meeting the supermarket’s sustainability ambitions.
“Today’s decision to no longer offer soft-plastic bags at the checkout is proof of our commitment to reduce the amount of plastic used in our stores and online. This positive change will remove 230 million plastic bags from circulation in one year,” said Swindells.
For those who forget to bring their own bags, the supermarket says 100 per cent recycled paper bags will be available. Reusable fresh produce bags made from 90 per cent recycled material are also available across Coles supermarkets nationally, it added.
To further reduce the use of bags across the business, Coles says it is currently trialling a new initiative called Swap-a-box in selected states that allows customers to use a reusable box when making Click&Collect orders.
Meanwhile, Tanya Barden, CEO from the Australian Food & Grocery Council (AFGC) argues that while the soft-plastics bag ban is a good start, REDcycle’s collapse calls for urgent solutions to soft plastics recycling in Australia.
Barden said: “A systemic challenge faced by REDcycle was the lack of domestic infrastructure to process soft plastic materials, and a lack of end-markets, which unfortunately led to the stockpiling issues we see reported in the media. This is a challenge the waste and resource recovery industry still faces today.
“The REDcycle scheme was ambitious and well-intended, but the initiative relied heavily on the public’s willingness to return their soft plastics waste to store, and at its peak, was only capturing roughly four percent of soft plastics recycling in circulation.”
She stated that while work is continuing on a short-term solution to REDcycle’s suspension, the Australian Food and Grocery Council is spearheading what she says is a more robust, industry-led solution to deal with large-scale collection and recycling: The National Plastics Recycling Scheme (NPRS).
“The NPRS tackles the problem at the kerbside, providing consumers with a more convenient way to recycle their soft plastics, taking it out of the waste streams and giving it new life, as part of a new advanced recycling industry here in Australia that can turn used soft plastics back into new food-grade packaging," she continued.
The scheme has recently completed a successful trial of over 7000 households held in six council areas across Victoria, South Australia and NSW, which seen a greater uptake of residents recycling their soft plastics compared to return to store schemes.
“We’re now looking to expand the trials into larger-scale pilots, with a further 100,000+ households set to join the scheme from late 2023,” Barden said, adding that this phased approach will allow domestic advanced recycling infrastructure to mature at pace with the scheme, and ensure it is able to deal with the increased volume of soft plastics recycling.
“We’ve already garnered significant momentum behind the NPRS, which is backed by some of the nation’s leading food and grocery manufacturers including Nestlé and George Weston Foods. This will help us reach a solution much quicker than regulation,” she concluded.
