The paper bags are being advertised as reusable, just they may not be as strong as when first used and it warns that strength will be compromised if they get wet. I’m sure we could and even should make them here but the cost per bag might/could be higher, I’ll add that these type of bags are already in every supermarket in NZ and I think they are NZ made there and cost 20c per bag. The past moves to offshore nearly every manufacturing job has shown it’s weakness with the COVID-19 impacts. Reliance on nearly everything being imported has consequences when external forces whether natural or otherwise, intervene.
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Australia does produce them…
And there are a few other manufacturers as well.
I suspect Woolworths sourced foreign bags due to cost or unability of an Australian manufacturer to meet the initial order to supply all Woolworths stores with sufficient stock of the required size quickly. Woolworths would have made the decision quickly to try snd ‘trump’ the other supermarkets by getting out there first with this initiative.
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From your link. " All our products are food safe and our Kraft ranges are made from 100% recyclable materials."
They better watch out for Kraft trying to take them to task for using their name although Kraft may still be too busy licking their wounds after their loss to Bega.
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From their about us I see the following “All out overseas facilities carry the ISO9001:2008 quality assurance accreditation.” & “Our state of the art distribution and manufacturing facilities in Australia and throughout South-East Asia” so at least some of it has been off-shored, how much that I don’t know.
“Kraft bags” and “Kraft paper” are terms used throughout the packaging industry. From https://www.primepac.com.au/everything-you-need-to-know-about-kraft-paper-packaging/ comes this explanation "Kraft paper is a packaging material that gets its name from the Kraft pulping process, pioneered by Carl F. Dahl of Germany in the 1880s.
Normally, in the manufacture of paper, wood is ‘pulped’ (ground to a pulp) first, but Dahl found that treating the cellulose pulp with certain chemicals (sulfates) increased the strength of the paper. He called his paper Kraft paper – Kraft in German means ‘strength’"
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A good news story regarding recycling plastics into usable products.
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In my shoulder bag I always have my pouched set of Eco-Silk shopping bags, together with a set of drawstring gauze bags for fruit etc. The gauze fruit bags are very light but strong, wash easily, dry quickly and take up very little space in your handbag.
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Announcement from the WMRRA about the progress of South Australia’s single use plastic legislation:
SA Parliament passes single-use plastics Bill
The South Australian Parliament has passed the Single-use and Other Plastic Products (Waste Avoidance) Bill 2020, which bans the sale, supply and distribution of single-use plastic products in the state.
The legislation, which will commence in early 2021, will first ban single-use items such as straws, cutlery, and beverage stirrers, and it outlines a framework for adding further items in the future.
The Bill also contains a provision to implement an exemption to allow the sale, supply and distribution of single-use plastic straws to those in the community who rely on them due to disability or medical need.
The legislation can be found here. It was developed with the help of the Single-Use Plastics Taskforce that includes the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia.
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Not quite sure if this belongs here. The packaging in question is undoubtedly plastic.
My name is Jerusha. I am a passionate disability advocate and a PhD student. I have cerebral palsy which makes tasks that involve strength and fine motor skills challenging. I love to cook and whilst I have gained some level of independence in the kitchen, the most challenging parts for myself would be opening the food packaging because of the way they are currently made. And I know I am not alone in this. A lot of people find this challenging for a variety of different reasons. In fact, statistics show that 44% of consumers had difficulty opening packaging every day.
Globally, product designers and engineers make products every day, but they do not always consider people with disabilities and elderly persons when creating their designs. For an example, opening jars, tins, and bottles require a significant level of strength and fine motor skills. If you did not have these physical capacities like me, opening these would be extremely challenging and pose risks to individuals leading to some devastating injuries. This significantly interrupts a person’s independence and quality of life. It also creates unnecessary barriers, that can be eradicated with some innovative / lateral thinking. I believe we should all be able to open food packaging with ease and comfort.
Considering the high statistics (1 in 4) of people with disabilities in Australia, I think that designers and engineers should create accessible designs and work with consumers with disabilities to ensure their product is completely accessible to them. This issue also pertains to the elderly population which makes up a significant 57 % of the Australian population. Gaining ongoing feedback from disabled and elderly consumers would be invaluable to ensuring inclusive designs and should be the standard process.
Altering the design to make it more accessible for the individual with disabilities would be significantly beneficial to increasing the individual’s overall health and independence. This could also reduce their reliance on a support worker, granting them a more autonomous cooking session as willed. Enabling them to have the equal access to fresher, home cooked meals.
Moreover, it would be helpful if each product that is made in a “disability / elderly friendly” manner would indicate this on their label.
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I have already signed it.
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In Kmart saw these…
https://www.kmart.com.au/product/7-reusable-cotton-bags/3075327
Might be if interest to those trying to reduce plastic bags from supermarket loose item purchases (e.g. fruit and vegetables)…and can’t make their own bags.
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A bit of movement from the corporate world. Some will diss it as window dressing or not enough, others will be happy any step is being taken. It seems the corporate world is increasingly stepping up to fill leadership vacuums of the ‘do nothing except deliver pork to donors’ political world across an increasing number of issues.
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A more comprehensive article about the issue.
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Lots of nice words. What, if anything, will be delivered?
A positive move, but how will they manage…
ambitious plastic reduction targets including 100 per cent of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable,
Achieving these are easy, getting the desired outcome after use… maybe near impossible.
Reuseable/recyclable and compostable are mostly mutually exclusive streams, and one in the other can cause problems.
Maybe different plastic types could be coloured to make easier for consumers to differentiate and dispose of correctly (which in the past has been problematic even with clear instructions) and mechanical sorting. Contamination will still be the biggest challenge with achieving all plastics go to where they should end their lives.
NSW finally moves towards the 21st century.
Better late than never?
WA steps up a gear.
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Instead of putting up with the cheapest “free” bag that someone is kind enough to give to us, I bought a good shopping basket made of recycled plastic, and TA-DA! there’s several fewer items of unnecessary consumption and waste every week for the rest of my life.
REDcycle is better than nothing, but we really only have use for a limited amount of cheaply-made outdoor furniture.
Its also a problem for some cardboard containers. I’ve noticed in the last year that cardboard has become the defacto standard for many takeaways apart from Pizza. The trouble, though is that you can never remove all the food and I know that the local recycling HATE food contamination. The local pub makes an effort by placing the food on an internal (paper) liner, but it always slides off and away, and there you are again.
Check you local council recycling requirements to what can be added to the recycling bin.
Where cardboard fast foof boxes can be added to the recycling bin, as long as the food (e.g. pieces or pizza or left over Chinese) has been removed before placing in a recycling bin, it usually doesn’t pose any recycling problems. Even residues stuck to the card isn’t any issue.
Leftovers should be put in the fridge and eaten at a later date and not left in the container when placing in the recycling bin.
When food is left in the containers it contaminates everything else collected, creates odours and attracts vermin. One has to remember that there are workers at the Materials Recycling Facilities which have to put up with those things which should never be placed in the recycling bin.
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I never leave food in the boxes, but they are often soaked in (for example) fat from pizza, or chips, or chicken snittie 
I thought they didnt want those either, though I confess they have been going in the recycling bin, because I dont have room in the mini trash bin our council supplies.
