Aotearoa / New Zealand

We don't buy plastic bags. We try to recycle as much as we can, including collecting soft plastics, but we first try to reduce the amount we produce.

I’ve already thought about rubbish bags and bin liners and I don’t know what the alternative will be yet.

Personally we just don't use a bin liner. The bin itself is plastic and easily washed, but doesn't need washing that often.

How will it be policed? Will the border customs staff be seizing imported plastic bags at the border?

I can't even find anything about bin liners or other plastic bags being banned from 1 July, only single use produce bags, plastic disposable cutlery/plates, plastic fruit stickers, and a restriction on who can buy plastic straws.

Can you point to something that says plastic rubbish bags are banned?

Aussie here: if it turns out anything like ours, look forward to shitty cardboard/paper bags at the supermarkets that cost 15c, and increase in price every 12 months. It’s a delicious little money maker for them.

Meanwhile, the Chinese grocer just got all their plastic bags with the words “reusable bag” printed on them instead.

We already have gone low-plastic. Soft plastics get collected separately to everything else and dropped off with soft-plastic recycling. For our bins we line the landfill bin with a thick paper shopping bag and use a separate container for organic waste.

I'm fairly sure biodegradable bags are not banned, so those are still an option. A lot of the time produce doesn't need a bag, e.g. bananas, apples, carrots (just need to wash them). You can bring your own fabric bags if you need to. The paper bags they have at more supermarkets are pretty good, and last for a while before you have to recycle them.

Our rubbish system is to have ice cream containers (one for rubbish, one for compost) with no liner. Easy to clean out when you need to. It works for us, because it's just me an my partner, and we reduce, reuse, recycle a lot. We probably fill a council rubbish bag once every 3-4 months (although more often when we're fostering kittens).

It takes a bit of effort, and I'm sure it's harder with kids, but it's definitely possible. If we can't all find ways to sacrifice a bit of convenience for the sake of the environment, we're pretty screwed.

Perth went through those a couple of years ago.

For me, I always forget to take a bag, and as a result am forced into the grocery juggle to take the stuff. I then grab a washing basket when I get home to take them inside.

I made it a personal goal to not buy bags if I forget, I reckon in the years it has come in I have purchased 5 times.

I have bought a folding car boot organiser, and use that as a bag. I put it near the door to remember to take it back to the car, where it now.lives. it means I can do the manly thing to only ever do one trip from the car to inside.

I've not had great success with the biodegradable rubbish bags. They just disintegrate and break when I take the full bag out the kitchen bin, spewing rubbish onto the floor.

It won't effect me at all. I have plenty of bags.

I honestly thought it was already in place. So no new changes for us here.