Campaign Backs
South Australian ban on plastic bags
\
18 April 2008: Jon Dee and the National Plastic Bag Campaign strongly endorse the South
Australian Government decision to ban single-use plastic bags from January 2009.
By taking this course of action, South Australia has taken a key leadership role in the push to
reduce Australia’s annual use of 4 Billion plastic bags.
“Yesterday’s failure by Environment Ministers to reach a national consensus on plastic bags is
a poor reflection on Australia’s environmental leadership,” said Jon Dee, the Organiser of The
National Plastic Bag Campaign.
Yesterday’s decision by Victoria to trial a plastic bag charge of 10 - 25 cents is not needed said
Dee. Bunnings, IKEA and ALDI have already shown that a plastic bag charge massively
reduces their usage. Bunning's 10 cent charity charge on plastic bags has reduced their usage
by 99% - a reduction of 200 million bags.
The campaign is calling on Peter Garrett to take more decisive action.
“China uses more plastic bags every week than Australia uses in a year” said Dee.
“If the
Chinese can ban the giving away of free plastic bags by June, then there’s no reason why
Australia cannot ban them by the end of this year.”
Since the campaign to ban plastic bags started in 2002, Australians have used an estimated
25 Billion plastic bags.
These bags can take many years to break down in the environment
and they cause significant problems for wildlife.
For interviews, please call Jon Dee on 0414 971 900 from 6:00 am
NEWS 
