Shoppers will no longer be able to pop their groceries into a plastic bag at Woolworths from June 20.
The supermarket chain will stop offering free disposable plastic bags to shoppers in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, 10 days earlier than originally planned.
Woolworths Group, which includes its supermarkets, BWS, Metro and Woolworths Petrol stores, last year said its stores would not offer single-use plastic shopping bags in all stores by the end of June 2018.
Group-wide more than 3.2 billion single-use plastic bags are handed out by Woolworths in Australia each year.
Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci executive officer said Woolworths and its customers could “create a greener future for Australia”.
“Our teams have been working hard behind the scenes to accelerate the rollout of this plan so we can start making a positive impact on the environment as quickly as possible,” he said.
“We feel very strongly this is the right thing to do.”
Customers can bring their own bags to Woolworths stores or can buy thicker reusable plastic bags at 15 cents and canvas bags at 99 cents.
By 30 June, Woolworths will also offer flexible plastic recycling options in all supermarkets via the REDcycle program.
REDcycle is a closed loop recycling solution where customers can return soft plastic packaging used on produce, biscuit packets, frozen food bags, rice and pasta bags, confectionery packets and shopping bags, which are then sent to our recycling partners.
The material is delivered to REDcycle to be turned into recycled plastic products such as outdoor furniture.
