Plastic Bag Free Villages
In 2003, Coles Bay in Tasmania declared itself ‘plastic bag free’ after the local bakery worked with other retailers in the town to eliminate the use of plastic check-out bags. This model of retailer cooperation has since been adopted globally as an effective ‘ground up’ approach to reducing the environmental impact of plastic check-out bags.
On Tuesday 20 October 2009 Tweed Shire Council resolved to initiate discussion on the possibilities for the elimination of plastic bags from the Shire. This led to the establishment of the shires Plastic Bag Free Village Program. The program is set out as follows:
- A retailer or interested community member obtains commitment from every retailer in the village and then approaches Council with retailer names and contact details.
- Council purchases a one-off supply of reusable bags, branded with the village name.
- Council supplies these bags to each retailer, erects signage at the village entry points and promotes the village as being plastic bag free.
- Retailers hand out a limited number of these reusable bags to regular customers and then sells the bags at cost price ($1) to fund the next purchase of bags. Obviously retailers should try to limit the number of bags they distribute by encouraging customers to bring their own solution to carrying groceries.
To the best of Council’s knowledge there is only one officially declared plastic bag free village in NSW that is outside of the Tweed Shire, being Kangaroo Valley south-west of Sydney.
Plastic bag free villages in the Tweed Shire include:
- Chillingham
- Tumbulgum
- Stokers Siding
- Crabbes Creek
Plans are also underway to make the following villages plastic bag free:
- Burringbar
- Mooball
- Uki
- Tyalgum
If you want your village to be considered for the program, download the expression of interest form and start talking to your local shopkeepers.
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