Retailers unanimously endorse a plastic bag-free future for Waitakere

More than 50 Waitakere retailers today unanimously endorsed a council plan to eliminate the use of plastic shopping bags in the city.

Hosted by Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey and attended by a wide variety of retailers, the forum resulted in an agreement to work together to reduce the distribution and consumption of plastic shopping bags and eventually eliminate their use all together.

Among those in attendance were large companies Progressive Enterprises, Foodstuffs, Gull and Westfield, as well as local business operators and business associations.

Following this today’s meeting, a working party will be established progress planning for the initiative.

“This has to be a partnership,” said Mayor Harvey. “It is this generation’s responsibility to the next generation to do this.

“We don’t want to be draconian about this sort of thing. It has to happen by goodwill,” he says. “Westies will do anything if you ask them and nothing if you tell them.”

Many of those who attended are already doing their bit to reduce their plastic bag use, from simply asking customers to make the choice about whether or not they want a plastic bag to being part of a national accord to reduce plastic bag usage and providing more environmentally-friendly alternatives to their customers.

The Waitakere suburb of Green Bay is already well on track with a plastic bag free campaign run by the Green Bay Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association last year having already been taken up by the majority of retailers.

Leading Australian environmentalist Matt Cross, coordinator of the Huskisson Plastic Bag Free Campaign in New South Wales, says Waitakere’s status as an eco city means that the transition may not be as hard as some retailers think.

“You already have a motivated and powerful ally in the council with its environmental vision and I suspect those who live in Waitakere would be expecting something like this – it will not be that scary to them.”

He says while retailers and councils can lead the way, the success of any campaign has to be consumer-driven and therefore educating the local community will be the biggest challenge.

The Green Party’s Waitakere spokesperson Kath Dewar also addressed the forum and says eliminating plastic shopping bags will have economical and environmental benefits.

She told the audience that New Zealand consumes 1 billion plastic shopping bags every year, including an estimated 43.8 million in Waitakere City and that over 40,000 plastic check-out bags are dumped in New

Zealand landfills every hour.
Ms Dewar added that using a cloth bag can save the use of around six plastic bags a week.