This new law applies to all retailers and suppliers regardless of size or type—from supermarkets to fashion boutiques, from fast food outlets to petrol stations.
Until recently, Victorians have used over 1 billion plastic shopping bags every year. The majority of these bags end up in landfill and around 10 million end up as litter, polluting the environment and endangering wildlife.
The ban on lightweight plastic shopping bags aligns with the government’s agenda to reduce single-use plastics and plastic pollution more broadly, and to shift from a linear model of resource consumption to a more circular economy of reuse and recovery.
The National Retailers Association has set up a toll-free Bag Ban Hotline (1800 817 723) to provide business with support in transitioning away from single use lightweight plastic bags. Detailed information about the ban can be found at www.vicbagban.com.au and www.plasticbags.gov.au.