Bag

In November 2016 the Plastic Free Whanganui group did a survey at the four main supermarkets in town and - in one hour - counted 1,927 single-use plastic bags exiting these shops. Extrapolating that figure to the beginning of 2019 means (conservatively) a further 3,650,000+ bags were given out in Whanganui alone. Sadly most of these bags will have been used on average for 12 minutes and will then have found their way to landfill, our natural environment, waterways and oceans where they will not decompose.

Fortunately from 1 July 2019 legislation came into effect in New Zealand banning single-use plastic shopping bags.

Say "no thanks" when offered a plastic bag for purchases. Always take a reusable bag with you.  

Have sets of reusable bags in your car for regular and unscheduled shopping trips.

Plastic bags will last indefinitely - rinse, dry and reuse to keep out of landfill as long as possible. Do not use as rubbish bin liners.

Buy good quality cloth/fibre bags for your shopping and mesh bags for your vegetables/fresh produce.

There are cloth-bag making groups in Whanganui whose mission is to reduce the use of plastic bags. Contact can be made via Facebook with: Morsbags, Whanganui - Te Awa Pod; and Plastic Free Whanganui which runs the Inside>Out bag-making project at Whanganui Prison.

There two bag boxes in Whanganui where you can pick up or leave bags: outside Countdown supermarket in Trafalgar Square (thanks to the Whanganui Bag Recycling Group), and outside the WhEB at the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre (thanks to the Morsbags and Plastic Free Whanganui groups as well as the ReUse Academy who all keep this stocked).

Some charity shops are also making and giving away cloth bags made from repurposed clothing. 

Soft plastics recycling is currently unavailable in Whanganui. Solutions are being sought. 

If you have surplus reusable bags, consider dropping them in to one of the bag boxes in town or a charity/secondhand shop. 

Please keep from landfill: reuse plastic bags as many times as possible. Plastic bags are particularly harmful to the environment, waterways and oceans.