Two biggest supermarket chains in the country has been banning the use of plastic bags since three months ago. The result, this campaign has successfully reduced the country’s plastic bag usage by 80% in just 3 months.
The result has been a surprise for the whole world and became viral in internet.
Talking about numbers, in average, Australian citizen consume about 3. 2 billion bags every year. But since the start of the campaign, Australian citizen has consumed at least 1. 5 billion fewer plastic bags in just three walking months.
About half of annual plastic bag consumption has been avoided while it took only three months of efforts to do the campaign.
How Did They Do That?
The campaign to stop plastic bag consumption was a complex process. It started when one of the biggest supermarket chains in Australia, Woolworth, decided to stop handing plastic bags to customers to fulfil the demands of environmental groups and consumers.
After the promotion went success, Coles, another Australia’s big supermarket chain, started to take charge for the plastic bags. Whether it was a campaign to make people realize the environmental cost of plastic bag or merely for profit, hasn’t been clear.
Furthermore, Stout hopes that smaller retailers can follow the moves of those two big players. “They should be able to consider that strategy without fear of backlash, ” he said.
Initiative
Once the numbers were released, worldwide recognition was earned. Cutting about 80% of annual plastic bag consumption in just three months is an incredible achievement. If only the whole world can do the same thing, we might not need to worry about how plastic is choking this planet anymore.
Looking on the geographic condition of Australia, we can see that they are actually near countries with the biggest single - use plastic use pollution that end up in the ocean, such as Indonesia, China, Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand.
Those countries are responsible for responsible for 9. 7 million tons of mismanaged plastic waste. Sharing is caring, so there must be a way to share the country’s achievement and how to achieve it to their neighbors.
If Australia can successfully share it to the neighboring countries, and those countries then continue to share the achievement like a chain letter to other countries, it might be possible for us to finally solve plastic mismanagement and prevent plastic entering our ocean. It all started with the courage to stop giving people unnecessary plastic bags.
SOURCE: Earth Buddies
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