South Africa – what‘s up with plastic bags?

Here is an interesting editorial from South Africa‘‘s Cape Times.



THE short answer is: not much. As my colleague Melanie Gosling revealed last November, despite the fact that more than R100 million has been raised from the 3c levy on every "thick" plastic bag we‘‘ve bought from supermarkets since 2003, not a single bag has been recycled using this money.



When the old, free, thin bags were scrapped in May 2004 and the new, thicker bags introduced in a bid to rid our landscape of the notorious "national flower" – discarded bags – we were told that the levy would be used to set up a Section 21 company to collect and recycle plastic bags, which would not only clean up the environment but also create thousands of jobs.



Answering written questions posed by Independent Democrats chief whip Lance Greyling last month, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk admitted that this company had only been established in 2005. Ten "buy-back centres" had been established around the country, which would "soon show visible collection of plastic waste nationally", the minister said.



So, no recycling so far.



"We need a government that is as effective at spending money as it is at collecting it," Greyling says.



He adds that private enterprise has proved to be up to the recycling task, citing the Collect-a-Can example.



"Perhaps the government should consider outsourcing."



All four supermarket groups told me that after an initial burst of "bring your own bags" enthusiasm, many consumers are not bothering with that anymore and simply buy the bags they need each time. Click here!



"In the beginning the impact was quite dramatic and the sale of plastic bags dropped by about 60%," says Spar‘‘s group marketing director Roelf Venter. "Since then there has been a marked increase in the purchases of bags."



Shoprite group marketing director Brian Weyers says there was an initial 70% drop in demand for new bags, but sales of the government standard bags have steadily risen.



The abolition of the free bag has at least been successful in driving that embarrassing "national flower" close to extinction.



It‘‘s been said that the real winners are the supermarket giants, who, having once had to provide free bags, are now making millions from selling them.



But all four groups – Pick ‘‘n Pay, Shoprite, Spar and Woolworths – vehemently deny this.



All told me they still subsidise the bags, as the thick bags cost them more than 30c each, including the government levy, and they are charging much less. They say their "pay in" is in the region of what they used to spend on providing bags.



Interestingly, while all four groups started out charging 21c for the top-selling biggest bag, only Pick ‘‘n Pay and Shoprite continue to sell them at that price. Woolworths sells theirs for 23c and Spar charges 25c.



So if the supermarkets are still subsidising the bags, some are doing so to a greater extent than others