‘Get Real’ National Plastic Bag Campaign Launched

As many of you know I have been working locally on plastic bag reduction for a few years and in this time Wanaka has embraced the change with 40% of shoppers saying no to plastic bags.  However our efforts here could be extended to inspired change on a national level.

I have been working with Wanaka Wastebusters on a National GetReal Plastic Bag campaign which we launched last week.

We are lobbying strongly for the major NZ retailers Progressive (Foodtown, Woolworths and Countdown) and Foodstuffs (New World, Pak n Save, 4Square) to stop giving away plastic bags for free.  By charging a small amount for plastic bags countries such as Ireland and Taiwan have achieved 80% reduction in plastic bags in 3 months.  Even The Warehouse is following this lead and will start charging from 20th April this year.

In our first week we have grabbed the attention of national media and even John Key has made a statement on the issue.

Now what we need is your support.  Do you want supermarkets to stop giving away plastic bags for free?  Then I urge you to log onto the site and spend 5 minutes online to join our campaign.

If you have friends or family who also take an interest in environmental issues please pass on the link to the site so they can join us too.  The more support we have, the more likely we are to have a good outcome on reducing plastic bag usage and the ability to go on and build a series of effective campaigns around packaging issues.

This is important and will lead the way to much greater change on the packaging front.  We hope that you will add your voice of concern at www.getreal.org.nz