Plastic bag ban passed by SA parliament

Environmentalists are praising South Australia for becoming the first Australian state to ban plastic bags. The legislation to ban plastic bags was passed by the state’s Parliament.

The ban will be phased in from 1 January. By 4 May 2009, South Australian shops will not be allowed to supply lightweight single-use polyethylene plastic bags.

“After all the talk by Environment Ministers about phasing out plastic bags, we finally have a state that has passed legislation to ban them at the checkout. This is a major win for the 6-year-old campaign to achieve a national ban or levy on plastic bags," said Jon Dee, the organiser of The National Plastic Bag Campaign.

“Last year, Australians used over 4 billion plastic checkout bags, most of which ended up in landfill or the environment."

Large and small retailers, including supermarket and non-supermarket retailers, and take-away food shops will all be affected by the proposed ban. The penalty for retailers who supply a banned bag will be an on-the-spot fine of $315 for each offence.

The ban is designed to encourage people to bring reusable bags when they shop.

Single-use paper bags and compostable biodegradable bags that meet Australian Standard AS 4736-2006 are excluded from the proposed ban.