Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage has confirmed that all single-use plastic bags will be banned by the middle of next year.
The ban, which will apply to all retailers, will include all bags under 70 microns thick. That means all single-use plastic shopping bags, such as those issued by many of the country’s chain stores will disappear.
Because of their thickness, the ban will also include some multi-use nylon and polythene. Compostable and degradable plastic bags will not be excluded, and barrier bags for meat, fish, fruit and vegetables will still be allowed
The ban was flagged by Sage and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in August and today’s announcement follows a five-week public consultation.
Sage said the majority of 9349 submissions (92 per cent) supported a mandatory phase-out of single-use plastic bags.
“It is because of the significant problem we have of plastic bags getting into the marine environment and examples all around the world of whales, seals, seabirds, turtles being suffocated and killed by marine pollution,” she said.
The decision to phase out a much wider range of bags than just thinner supermarket bags was based on strong public support (78 per cent of submissions) for all single-use plastic bags to be included regardless of their thickness
The billion-plus bag problem
• New Zealanders use around 1.6 billion single-use plastic bags every year, which end up in landfills, litter, or oceans, where they can choke animals or break down and enter our own food chain when fish swallow them.
• Globally, humans are each year dumping more than eight million metric tonnes of plastic into the marine environment – that is equivalent to the weight of 24 jumbo jets, or Eden Park stadium stacked with plastic more than 1km high.
• With plastic production having ramped up 20-fold over the past 50 years, scientists say its volume in our oceans could outweigh that of even fish by the middle of this century.
Political Reporter, NZ Herald