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How green is your bag
April 25, 2005
Fashion statement, talking point, environmental saviour, pollutant, profit-maker - or all of the above? Margot Saville rifles through the grocery holdall of a nation.
There are at least 10-15 million circulating in Australia - probably many more. They come, mostly, in the sort of bright, unnatural green that looks good on no one. Yet two years after their appearance, they are apparently Australia's favourite accessory.
"Forget the little black dress," declares a Sunday newspaper. "The hot new item around town is the little green bag."
A reader writes in reply: "It's so spacious, and they're great for the environment, adding spark to any outfit. Go green!"
One newspaper columnist claims the green bag as a new Australian icon: "In 2005, we proclaim we are one nation with green bags just as we proclaimed we were one suburb of a nation with Holden cars, Hills hoists and the backyard barbie."
Then there are the knockers.
"Australians are being conned," says a letter writer in The Age newspaper. "Your environmentally friendly green bags are made of plastic - polypropylene is a fossil fuel-based plastic. The bags are also imported from China. So, plastic, non-renewable, doing nothing for our balance of payments and guess what? You're paying for the privilege. Supermarkets are laughing all the way to the bank."
Another reader writes: "I've just retired after 30 years in the packaging industry and, frankly, I'm amazed at the constant rave about the 'environmental' green bags ... Doesn't anyone realise these bags are made of the same 'almost indestructible' materials used in car bumpers and wheelie bins? ... These bags replace the plastic bags, which were in the throes of changing to a safe cornstarch biodegradable form ... what happens when these 'cool' bags reach their use-by date? Will there be millions of them in circulation?"
Ian Kiernan, chairman of the Clean Up Australia campaign, last year defended the bag in a letter to the Herald. "Each green bag will last an average household about two years, or 104 shops, after which they can be recycled through Coles and Bi-Lo supermarkets," he said. "Every green bag equals 1.2 single-use plastic bags. That's an estimated 8.3 plastic bags saved every week, or 431 a year."
But it remains to be seen if shoppers will recycle the bags when they start to wear out. Our record has so far been poor: less than 4 per cent of plastic carry bags are returned to supermarkets for recycling. In the meantime, importers of the green bags expect the booming sales to continue.
Catherine Christie spoke for many of us when she wrote to Adelaide's The Advertiser newspaper in February: "Are there any other shoppers who forget on supermarket day to take along their green bags? I have enough green bags to start a recycling shop." Even the federal Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, said last month: "I think I have bought more of these reusable bags than any person on the planet."
A CSIRO research scientist, Dr Mike O'Shea, says the green bag's only environmental credential is that it is not the single-use high-density polyethylene plastic bag still given out in most shops and supermarkets.
The green bags, which are made from non-woven polypropylene, are designed to have a relatively long life but they are not designed to break down in the compost heap, he says.
Polypropylene is a byproduct of oil refining, O'Shea says. Produced during the process is propylene gas, which, when put into a reactor, becomes propylene powder. After stabilisers are mixed with the powder, it is placed in an extruder, which produces propylene pellets, which can then be turned into a range of things including car bumper bars and food containers. If the pellets are melted, they can be made into a fibre which can then be made into bags.
While environmental groups such Clean Up Australia give support to the green bags, because they can be reused, the debate continues. The Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, made headlines in August when he criticised them.
"I don't know how they are made but you don't know what goes into making them and how many plastic bags there really are in the world," he said. "I'm not against it but I'm not sure." When asked recently if his views had changed, Anderson told the Herald that he supports the use of reusable and recyclable bags. His main concern now was whether they were "made from Australian materials rather than imported".
Although environmentally aware shoppers have always carried tofu-stained calico bags, the green bag movement gained momentum in 2002 when public concern prompted a government study on a possible plastic bag levy.
Australians were using about 10.5 billion plastic bags each year, including about 6.9 billion retail carry bags. Millions of these bags entered rivers and seas, where they could kill whales, birds, seals and turtles. Plastic bags were also said to add $173 million to our annual grocery bill.
Reusable green bags got the nod over biodegradable plastic bags because it was found many degradable bags did not break down as claimed. (A standard for biodegradable plastic bags is not due until later this year.)
In order to avoid levies or a ban, the Australian Retailers Association - which represents most big supermarkets such as Coles and Woolworths - agreed to reduce plastic bag use by 25 per cent by December last year and 50 per cent by this December.
In March, the retailers' association reported last year's target had been achieved - but only just. Retailers would struggle to make this year's target, the association said. If the targets are not achieved, the association expects a ban or tax of 25 cents per plastic bag.
The problem lies with smaller retailers such as pharmacies, newsagents and bottle shops - about half of which had not even heard of the target, a March survey by Planet Ark showed. Retailers cited cost, habit and convenience as reasons for sticking with plastic bags.
Nevertheless, the Environment Minister has set an ambitious deadline for phasing out plastic bags. On June 22, Campbell will ask retailers to sign a "formal agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia" to phase out plastic bags completely by 2008. Retailers will be given three months to sign. The document will then be made public so shoppers know who has - and who hasn't - signed up.
This all adds up to big business for Jeff Egan, director of the printing firm JMP Holdings, which supplies green bags to Coles and the independent grocery chain Independent Grocers of Australia. "The number of green bags we have sold has doubled over the past 12 months, and will double again over the next 12," Egan says. JMP sold about 2 million green bags in 2003-04.
But expanding sales will depend on whether smaller retailers follow the lead of bigger supermarkets. Total sales of the bags are difficult to tally. Woolworths has so far sold more than 7 million green bags. Coles sold more than 4 million last year alone.
"IGA has 1000 supermarkets and it takes time for the individual shop owners to [adopt the bags]. But those sales are rapidly expanding," Egan says. The supermarkets don't make big profits on the bags, he believes. The cost of the bags varies according to the size of orders. "The supermarkets are selling them for less than $1 and they are not making huge profits."
Egan declines to reveal his wholesale prices, but industry watchers estimate the large supermarket chains are buying them for about 65 cents each. Coles and Woolworths sell the green bag for 99 cents. Like most wholesalers, including Planet Ark, which sells the bags for 80 cents to $1.40 each, JMP imports them from China.
Lower labour costs allow China to supply bags cheaply. It is a very labour-intensive process, Egan says.
"The material is extruded, dyed, folded and cut to size. The girls sit on Singer sewing machines and do only part of the bag before it is passed on to the next section. Then the bags are taken across to the print factory, where they are silkscreened, packaged and shipped all over China," he says.
One Chinese manufacturer, the Kangmao Arts and Crafts Company in the city of Henan, produces 5 million non-woven polypropylene bags a month in hundreds of styles. A spokesperson said Kangmao sold to 10 customers in Australia.
Planet Ark's Doug McLean says the green bags "serve as a first step in changing the way we use bags and why we use bags". They are "not perfect, but they are an initial break in the link of people taking 7 billion throwaway bags. There is an emphasis on behaviour change."
One of the biggest behaviour changes will be teaching Australians to recycle the bags rather than discard them when they wear out.
Coles-Myer takes back its bags for recycling, but a Woolworths representative could not say if a similar recycling program was planned or in place. Recycled bags are shredded and made into products such as outdoor furniture. Australians have so far shown little interest in recycling programs for plastic bags.
Only 3.2 per cent of plastic bags were returned to supermarkets for recycling from June to December last year, the Australian Retailers Association reported in March.
Under a voluntary code, the figure is supposed to be 15 per cent by the end of this year. But the figure has "actually reduced from June 2004", because so many of us hold onto them for bin liners and other secondary uses.
The main short-term challenge is convincing small retailers to give up the plastic bag habit. Unless this happens, the 50 per cent reduction target by the end of this year will be difficult to achieve.
Only 126 stores had signed up to the Australian Retailers Association code by the end of last year.
"This represents only 4 per cent of the estimated number of [association] members utilising [high-density polyethylene] plastic bags, well short of the 25 per cent target as outlined in the code," the association reported in March.
Still, green groups such as Planet Ark insist that any move away from plastic is a good thing.
"The next 10 steps will hopefully be about providing ever-more eco-friendly and continued cost- and style-effective bags for all of our formerly throwaway bag behaviours," McLean says.
I never knew the bags were made out of bad material :o I would definitely prefer biodegradable bags!