NSW plastic bag ban: how will it work and what will be gained from it?

Single-use plastic bags will be banned in New South Wales this week. The decision follows similar moves in other states and by major retailers.

We take a look at what this means for shoppers and businesses, and how it will be enforced.

The ban will not apply to bin liners, dog-poo bags, and the thin bags for fresh produce and deli items in supermarkets. Bags used for medical items will also be also exempt.

The NSW environment minister, James Griffin, says single-use bags are convenient but their impact is undeniable, so they need to go.

From 1 November, single-use plastic straws, cutlery, chopsticks and food picks will also be banned. As with the bags, this will also cover biodegradable, compostable and bioplastic products but will not extend to wooden implements.

There will be some exemptions to the rule, including allowing people with disabilities or medical needs to use plastic straws.

Expanded polystyrene containers, like those used for halal snack packs and fish and chips, are also set to be banned. Other items including meat and produce trays will not be included in the ban.

In the bathroom, microbeads in some personal care products such as those used in exfoliants and masks will be banned, alongside single-use plastic cotton buds.

They argue this will create a problem if they were not banned at the same time, despite the gradual rollout of food and organic waste (FOGO) bins across the state.

Businesses and distributors caught giving out single-use plastic bags will face fines of between $11,000 and $250,000, but it will be the plastics distributors that regulators target initially, Griffin says.

Work has also been done with the National Retailers Association (NRA) to get retailers and businesses across the details ahead of the two-stage ban implementation. They can call a free hotline that has been set up by the NRA for advice on how to transition away from plastics.

The government estimates that 2.7bn items will be stopped from entering landfills and the environment over the next 20 years as a result of the ban.

The move is part of a state government push to reduce plastic litter by 30% by 2025 as part of a wider $356m five-year plan that included the rollout of green FOGO bins by 2030.

South Australia was the first Australian state to ban single-use plastic bags, with an exemption for biodegradable bags, back in 2009. It then strengthened its stance with further bans on single-use straws and other items last year.

The ACT implemented its own ban in 2011 before Tasmania followed in 2015. Queensland then imposed its own ban in 2018 before Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Victoria in 2019.

Major retailers have also moved on this already, with Woolworths and Coles almost simultaneously bringing in bans on single-use plastic bags in 2018.

Griffin says NSW was making sure it got it right and had been developing a robust and thorough suite of policies, including the container deposit scheme.