Western Australia to ban plastic bags from July 2018

Up to 6 billion bags a year go into landfill in Western Australia, after being used for 12 minutes.

From July 1, 2018, single-use plastic bags will be banned in Western Australia, Environment Minister Stephen Dawson announced on Tuesday.

 Dawson told Radio 6PR the state-wide ban would end any uncertainty caused to retailers in some local councils that had already decided to ban plastic bag use within their districts.

"Over the past few months we've seen a range of local governments act to ban plastic bags in their locality, we've also seen Coles and Woolworths indicate they're going to ban plastic bags," he said.

"Given there's been a bit of concern amongst retailers - they have shops in one local government where they're going to be banned but they're not going to be banned in the next suburb - we've decided the best thing to do is actually ban them across the state.

"We wanted to give communities certainty now that the ban will happen, local government don't need to act, they can wait for the state to implement the ban next year."

The ban will apply to light-weight single use bags, but not sturdier bags typically used at retail outlets.

"The evidence shows that [light-weight] bags last an average of 12 minutes, those stronger bags you get in Myers and other places, they last a lot longer and people can and tend to reuse those," Dawson said.  \
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"[We also won't be banning] barrier bags that you get your hams and your meats in," Dawson said.

The state-wide ban will bring Western Australia into line with South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory which already have plastic bag bans in place.

Queensland has also vowed to ban the bag from July 1, 2018.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/96767339/western-australia-to-ban-plastic-bags-from-july-2018