Apparently I’m not the only one who is slightly cynical about plastic bag charges.

April 18, 2009 by
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Life in New Zealand 

Foodstuffs, half of the supermarket cartel that runs New Zealand’s supermarkets has come out and said that from August 3rd 2009 it will charge 5c for all carrier bags. They own New World, Four Square and Pak’n’Save, and Pak ‘n’ save already charges for its bags in the North Island. Quite why it is acceptable for North Island shoppers to be charged and not South Island ones is yet to be explained.

At 5c a bag, the 250,000,000 bags they “sell” will bring in an extra $12.5m in revenue. Now lets be clear about this – they already buy these bags (apparently for less than 5c), so they wont be paying any extra – just pulling in an extra $12.5m.

So, what do foodstuff claim is going to happen to the 5c? According to the Dom Post: Foodstuffs managing director Tony Carter said profits would be used to pay for an environmental initiative that has yet to be announced.” Clearly any benefits we get as an organisation we’ll pass on to consumers in other ways.” I would like to see how charging an extra 5c is going to benefit the customer.

But then: A Foodstuffs spokeswoman said “a significant proportion” of funds raised by the levy would go toward environmental projects, the details of which were still being worked out.

So which is it? Is the 5c going to the “environment” or is a “significant proportion” of it going to the environment?

Something else that worries me about this: I once got charged up front for a carrier bag I didn’t even want or need. This was in Ireland – we happened to visit the week they started charging for bags. The guy behind the counter took my card to pay for the goods, charged it and then put my stuff in a bag. I said I didn’t need a bag – at which point I found I had been charged for it already. Not so much as a “would you like a bag for that Madam?” I made him refund the cost of the bag.

I sincerely hope that the New Zealand supermarkets learn that you can fit more than 3 items in a bag and have the nouse to ask the customer first if they would like a bag or not.

Not everyone thinks it’s a con mind you. A 15 yr old is quoted as saying she would accept a levy of up to 20c. “I’m all for the environment.” Fine – if you care about the environment – buy a reusable shopping bag and stop using plastic bags in the first place. Paying 20c does not mean you care about the environment – It means you can’t be bothered to care and just want to pay a tax instead to salve your conscience. All the supermarkets sell reusable bags for a few dollars, and we found a really good supplier of large bags, which sit inside your supermarket trolley:

One thing I have noticed while checking some websites for this blog: all the websites I checked sell to retailers for promotional use. So I think they should smarten up and sell to the public. Again – no point in trying to come across with impeccable “environmental credentials” if you don’t make it easy for people to access your product. Should you happen to find a Trolley Bag somewhere for sale in New Zealand – I would recommend them. We bought our at the Levin “Medieval” Fair.

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Related posts:

  1. Charging 5c for plastic bags. The cheek of it!
  2. South Island – it’s another country apparently.
  3. Bank Charges when traveling to Australia.
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Comments

3 Comments on Apparently I’m not the only one who is slightly cynical about plastic bag charges.

  1. Hubby on Sun, 19th Apr 2009 10:08 pm

    2. It’s interesting that most shop staff appear confused by me saying “I don’t need a bag for that” – ‘that’ could be anything from one bottle of cream, two cartons of egg’s or just a bunch of flowers.

    To my mind, I’ve got two perfectly good hands, so why do I need a bag? Quite often a large backpack on my back, or the huge shopping trolley bag that could fit six small children, isn’t sufficient to carry the bunch of banana’s I’ve just bought. It’s all quite strange.

    Still just watch the shop staff struggle with the interlocking handles of the trolley bags :)

  2. Hubby on Mon, 27th Apr 2009 10:33 pm

    3. The staff in the supermarket actually asked if I needed a bag for my purchases this evening.
    One hot chicken in a paper bag ‘cos it’s too hot to hold.
    One pack of razors.

    Nope – funnily enough I didn’t need a bag! At least they asked though.

  3. Avalon on Mon, 27th Apr 2009 10:40 pm

    4. Moore Wilsons said that the mark up on plastic bags @ 5c a bag is about 1000% Thats scary amounts of profit if they dont pass it on to “environmental causes”.

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