Coles has backflipped on its bag ban, offering customers free reusable plastic bags indefinitely

WOOLWORTHS has confirmed it will stick to guns on the plastic bag ban as rival supermarket Coles revealed its surprising backflip.

Coles reignited the bag ban debacle this morning announcing it would offer reusable plastic bags for free indefinitely because customers were finding it too tricky to remember their reusable bags.

Woolworths, however, said its customers had no such issues.

In a statement sent to news.com.au, a spokeswoman for Woolworth said the majority of the chain’s customers had “embraced the move to a more sustainable way of shopping”, and thanked shoppers for their patience and support.

“Our focus is on continuing to help all our customers form new and sustainable habits,” the statement said, adding that Woolworths would continue to reward customers who brought their own bags.

Both leading supermarkets giants removed single-use plastic bags on July 1 in stores in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia following a major backlash, but ended up handing out reusable bags for free.

Today was supposed to be the cut-off date, but Coles confirmed to news.com.au it will continue to offer these bags — which normally cost 15 cents — for free.

“When Coles phased out single use plastic bags on 1 July in QLD, NSW, Victoria and WA, some customers told us they needed more time to make the transition to reusable bags,” a Coles spokesman told news.com.au.

“We’ve been delighted to see customers grow more accustomed to bringing their reusable bags from home so they are relying less on complimentary bags at the checkout.

“Many customers bringing bags from home are still finding themselves short a bag or two so we are offering complimentary reusable Better Bags to help them complete their shopping.

“Complimentary bags are intended to be an interim measure to help customers make the transition to reusable bags.

“We will continue to listen to our customers and our teams members on an ongoing basis to assess when customers have become accustomed to bringing their own bags, and will provide them with as much notice as possible.”

The backflip prompted rival Woolworths to reaffirm its commitment to banning single-use plastic bags, and another player, Harris Farm Markets, to plead with the NSW state government to crack down.

“We’re really disappointed by the decision from Coles Supermarkets this morning to backflip on their plastic bag ban and give out re-usable plastic bags free of charge indefinitely,” co-CEO Angus Harris said.

“We now renew our call to Gladys Berejiklian and the State Government to enforce a ban of single use plastic bags immediately. We also call on the Board of Coles to reconsider this decision for the sake of our planet.”

Environmental groups are furious with the decision. Speaking to the Herald Sun, director of environmental group Boomerang Alliance Jeff Angel labelled it a “weak act”.

“These so-called reusable plastic bags are almost as thin as the banned lightweight ones,’’ he said.

“They have a very limited life and the removal of the price signal also means they are more likely to be littered — something we warned about.”

Social media users have made similar points:

What is the point of the reusable plastic bags! If Coles is going to hand them out for free, they’re going to be just as disposable as the original ones!
— chloe (@ch10033) July 31, 2018

Poor move today @Coles. How will change ever happen if plastic bags are continually given out for free? #WarOnWasteAU
— Dr Bubb (@kristenbubb) July 31, 2018

What on earth is @Coles doing? Flip-flopping all over the place regarding bags now they are continuing to give reusable bags away. There is no reason to. If coles actually care about the environment they would do what they intended in the beginning.
— OhRangaCan (@TheSupremeRanga) July 31, 2018

Speaking on Today this morning, Georgie Gardner described it as a “PR shamshackled from the start”.

“It just came out of the blue,” she said.

Coles recently came under fire after launching its Little Shop marketing campaign, releasing a range of plastic miniature versions of popular products like Nutella, Vegemite and Weet-Bix.

At the end of June, rival supermarket Woolworths announced it would hand out free reusable bags to customers for 10 days, because customers were underestimating the amount of bags they needed to bring.

Customers at Woolworths continue to pay 15 cents per reusable bag.

NEW ‘CURATED’ STORE: Woolies wants you to shop three times a day

Both grocery heavyweights have also pledged to slash the amount of plastic used in packaging and wrapping, with Coles also vowing to halve food waste and make all its own-brand packaging recyclable by 2020.

The plastic bag ban has divided Australians since it came into effect. While some shoppers have heaped praise on the move, saying it should have been implemented sooner, plenty more have complained about the transition.

Last month the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) said check-out staff at Coles and Woolworths had found mice, cockroaches, needles, razor blades, dentures and dirty nappies in the multi-use bags.

But the supermarkets denied these reports, saying the “vast majority” of customers were being “respectful and patient” with staff during the transition.

In May, Woolworths polled 12,500 customers about the single-use plastic bag ban. According to their survey results, almost 75 per cent supported the transition to reusable bags, while less than 15 per cent were opposed to it.

Plastic bag bans have successfully been implemented in various locations around the world — including South Australia — without fuss.

Is this a good move from Coles? Comment below

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