
New South Wales, we need to have a chat about the plastic bag ban.
Just you. Not WA, or South Australia, or Victoria or Queensland. Yep, just you.
Come, take a seat and brace yourselves for some hard truths.
This week, your overreaction to the recent single use plastic bag initiative (and overall attitude problem) effectively forced Coles to reverse its plastic bag ban. Now, they’ll be handing out the reusable bags for free because you need more time.
The same thing happened only a month ago, when within 24 hours of Woolworths removing single use plastic bags from NSW stores, they brought in a ‘cooling off period’ of free bags for customers, as we discussed on Mamamia Out Loud.
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For some of you, the thought of not having a single use plastic bag available to you at all times is a scandal, an outrage even.
But down in good ole South Australia a.k.a Adelaide a.k.a the city where nothing happens, we’ve been doing just fine without plastic bags for years.
Literally, it’s been almost 10 years since my people and I last used a plastic bag.
When I first moved to Sydney, I was so shocked to see the grey, bad for the environment plastic bags at the checkout instead of the white, shiny reusable ones I’d been paying 15 cents for since 2009.
To put it in perspective, the last time I used a plastic bag in Adelaide, I was in high school buying cans of Coke and a Dolly magazine.
And when I cast my mind back to the fateful day plastic bags were banned (which was May 4, 2009 to be exact) I remember… nothing… because… nothing happened.
The sky did not come crashing down on Adelaide Oval.
No one went bankrupt… in relation to paying for reusable bags, at least.
There was no riot, or social media pile on, and no one’s life was ruined.
