Plastic Bags
Plastic Checkout Bags in the East Gippsland Shire Council area
Keep plastic bags out of your home recycling. Plastic bags can cause big problems when placed in your kerbside recycling bin.
Take plastic checkout bags to participating supermarkets for recycling.
Plastic checkout bags can be taken to participating supermarkets such as Coles, Woolworths, Franklins or Safeway for recycling. They cannot be placed in home recycling bins. Recycling contractors collect the plastic bags in bulk from participating retailers. The bags are then compacted into large heavy blocks ready for further processing and conversion into raw material to make recycled plastic products.
Reusable woven polypropylene bags (the 'green bags'), cotton and string bags can be washed to prolong their life. At the end of their life they can be taken to second hand stores if they are in good condition, or some materials may be useful as cleaning rags. Bags made from cotton, calico, hemp or bamboo fibres can also be composted a the end of their life.
Plastic checkout bag recycling drop-off locations near you include:
Safeway - Watergardens (taylors Lakes)
Cnr Melton Highway & Kings Road
Sydenham VIC 3037
Ritchies - Maffra
102 Johnson Street
Maffra VIC 3860
Coles - Bairnsdale
96-118 Main Street
Bairnsdale VIC 3875
Safeway - Bairnsdale
Nicholson Street
Bairnsdale VIC 3875
Safeway - Lakes Entrance
371-375 The Esplanade
Lakes Entrance VIC 3909
About plastic checkout bags
- 20 million Australians still use over 3.9 billion plastic checkout bags a year. That’s 10 million a day!
- A person's use of a plastic checkout bag can be counted in minutes - however long it takes to get from the shops to their homes. However, plastic bags can take between 15 and 1,000 years to break down in the environment.
- Many marine and terrestrial animals are killed by plastic bags that escape from landfill. The best solution to this problem is to use reusable bags that prevent you using plastic bags in the first place.
Recycling plastic checkout bags
- Plastic bags cannot be placed in council recycling bins.
- Over 200,000 plastic checkout bags are dumped in landfills every hour.
- Only 3% of Australia's plastic bags are currently being recycled, despite recycling facilities being available at major supermarkets and retail outlets listed above.
For more info:
- Another way to reduce this problem is to avoid plastic bags in the first place.
- Use reusable bags for your shopping. Most reusable bags can be washed to prolong their life.
- Check out Planet Ark's plastic bags reduction website.
