Due to the silly decision of charging for plasic bags by Foodstuffs, from August I am no longer shopping at Pak n Save, but will go to Countdown instead.

Neven911 - dont you greenies love banning things !
smacking banned
junk food banned
plastic bags banned

get a life

I spent a bit of time a while back in Ireland where from memory there was a 5 cent charge for plastic bags. Once the initial shock was over, I found had a choice, either pay up or do without. It certainly didn't stop me from using them all togther, but I soon stopped using them for the couple of items I could carry.
I think it's a good idea to charge for them. If the supermarkets make a few more bucks on it, more the fool you.

"I spent a bit of time a while back in Ireland where from memory there was a 5 cent charge for plastic bags"

Pak N Save charges for bag. Never a problem for me as I always carry a reusable bag with me or use one of the cardboard boxes available

sam.p, I'm sure that some people think that using plastic bags as their bin-liners mitagates their destructivness, and somehow makes it all right. Still ends up in landfill if it's in the rubbish or around the stuff. It's not really re-cycling, and shouldn't be termed so as you're still hiffing them out. Hope you're not one of them. I now send any I collect back with the kerb side recycling and wash my bins out with water. No real hardship. I wouldn't be too bothered if they disappeared altogether.

Neven911 - actually Europe does allow plastic bags, but you pay for them. I quickly learned the meaning of "Le Sac?" at the supermarket in France, and we all learned to be a bit more organised about taking the bags with us when we went shopping.

The real answer to this issue is to use biodegradable plastic bags. They are available and not expensive.

Having spent a life time at sea and in countries all through asia, You can see the damage and filth plastic produces.
I'm all for getting rid of plastic bags, And in particular plastic water bottles....
I'm all for chopping down a few trees to make to make cardboard bags...
And guess what I'm a totaly anti-greenpeace supporter...I just prefer to rely on commonsense ......By the way what is Greenpeace global CO2 footprint???Dont worry just buy a 10$ sticker and slap it on your fridge...Feel good factor....

Something stands out....we are not greenies, yet we all see the "common sence" of the plastic bag issue and most proberly all agree on water bottles..

"I'm all for chopping down a few trees to make to make cardboard bags"¦"
Why chop down trees? recycling our paper cardboard takes care of this...

Surcharge on plastic bags is no more than increasing profitabily in the name of conservation...and hanging on to this 'nice little number' that needs no extra raw materials labour or overheads, for as long as possible....Supermarkets/retailers giving their 'heart a rub' no I dont think so.

Water bottles, plastic bags, along with leaded fuel in the 50s to 70s, the yk2 bug, must all go down as the biggest legal scams in the worlds history

Coming from Europe, reading and experiencing Kiwi behaviour as far as economic and environmental issues concern I must say, sometimes I feel like we live in third world country.

The problem I have with this is the same problem I have with the proposed banning of incandescent lightbulbs. It is arbitrary at best and tokenism at worst.

If we want to reduce rubbish going to landfill - tax sending rubbish to landfill. If we want to reduce carbon emissions - tax carbon emissions. Targeting specific items is likely to be a very inefficient way of achieving the aim at the least cost. Let the market work out what is the cheapest way of achieving what we want collectively.

@ W. Kunz - European economic policy more advanced than NZ? Let me give you a few examples of economic stupidity in Europe: Fish discards, The CAP, car scrappage schemes, rail freight subsidies, The working time directive.

I grew up and lived for 43 years in Switzerland before immigrating to New Zealand in 1992.

Just 3 daily observations in comparison:
1) In the 70's most lakes and rivers in Switzerland were heavily polluted.
2) In the 70's car drivers didn't switch off their engines for minutes while parked/ stopped.
3) In the 70's shopping was purely about consumption not about environment.

I see the same picture here in New Zealand now in 2009.
In the meantime the Swiss government (taxpayer) spend millions of $ to educate people and to clean up the country.

@ Matthew
Workable Economy in Europe ?? - think about history/ culture it will never works as a unit.

steptoe, exactly

I use cardboard boxes or reusable bags,and even though the reusables if they are plastic cost more carbon wise when they are made, its a one off,I'll be using them in five years still.When I get home I have maybe 4 bags/boxes to carry from car to house.Easy.i remember having to take about 15 or so stupid plastic bags up a flight of stairs! with to babies! Its a no brainer of a choice, personal freedom has nothing to do with this debate but stupidity sure does.

@trev

It's interesting you should say that suppliers should switch to biodegradable bags. Over the past few years the exact opposite has occured.

Most supermaket bags all switched to biodegradable ~ 5 years ago.

In recent years I believe virtually everybody has switched back due to the inability of the recycling industry to copy with this type of plastic. Large numbers of people use their bags in recycling bins (and most councils seem to like you to group your recycled goods together in supermarket bags inside your bin) and this literally chokes their system as this plastic can't be recycled here, it has to be disposed of. Regular plastic bags on the other hand are recyclable.

@Steve - I am talking about bags that degrade after being exposed to water and heat (as in a compost). Your points are interesting, there may be several types of biodegradable bags.

In Auckland, we are not allowed (or are told not to) put plastic bags into the blue recycling wheelie bins.

It seems there is a need for someone to take a lead in this area and provide a sustainable solution to the problem.

Maybe Carter Holt or James Hardy can do this. It'd give them a chance to redeem themselves for their wrongs over the last few decades - shoddy timber and building products that contributed to the leaky homes.

It is excellent Roger is now looking at solvable problems instead of trying to deal with issues where his restricted belief system hides him from seeing the complexity of human nature.

We do not need the 'productivity report', which is interestingly largely ignored in Australia now as biased, to tell us that there are plastic bags all over the roadside. And we certainly do not need his pseudo-rigorous assessment of environmental issues to see that our sea and rivers are increasingly polluted.

Creating a culture of responsibility may incrementally move the effect of our individual decisions over time.

It is time Roger started to get out more, have a look around and champion decisions with measurable outcomes as opposed to rolling out the old 'status quo' defence all the time.

And, and, and - when it comes to Obama and the dairy industry - wake up for Gods sake. Wall Street failed the voters. The voters are now quite likely going to demand jobs over efficiency. This means protected markets for the products produced by those jobs. If you don't have a job it doesn't matter how efficient globalised trade is, you still can't afford it.

For the majority of people there is no prove climate change is "Men made", but there are unusual weather events coming, which costs us billions.
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDX1299.shtml

That's it from me for a while.