The Project’s Waleed Aly reveals the point everyone is missing about the plastic bag ban
The Project’s Waleed Aly has waded into the plastic bag debate that has raged ever since the nation’s most popular supermarkets – Woolworths and Coles – ditched single-use plastic bags last month.
After airing a segment about the environmental benefits of the plastic bag ban on Friday’s episode of The Project, guest panellist Natarsha Belling said the ban should include all single use plastic in supermarkets.
“I spoke to my local Woolworths lady about the plastic bag situation, now they’ve replaced it with the heavy duty plastic bags that next week they are going to charge 15 cents for each customer. Are they biodegradable?” she asked.
“Does it matter?” Aly replied.
“It does matter,” Belling countered, “because if we are going to go with no plastic, let’s get rid of all the packaging then on all the fruit and vegetables — what do you put your fruit and vegetables in?”
The plastic bag ban is here to stay. It’s also the right thing to do - let’s stop being a bunch of sooks and deal with it. #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/i1jEUJMiPA
— The Project (@theprojecttv) July 6, 2018
But Aly argued that angry shoppers were missing the point about the plastic bag ban, arguing that the ban wasn’t about forcing customers to pay for reusable bags, but it was actually a move to try and get customers to stop using plastic altogether to avoid the charge.
“Sure if you want to make that argument fine,” he said. “But the bags themselves that they sell — sure I get it would be better if they were selling biodegradable bags — but the point is not that.
“The point is the charge, so that you stop buying them, so it’s designed that you stop buying them eventually.”