We all know it’s well past time to ban single use plastic bags. Right now, we have a unique opportunity to finally make it happen, and help NSW catch up with the rest of the country.

Legislation to ban single-use plastic bags just passed the NSW Parliament Upper House. This means the Bill will go to the Lower House in October. NSW Liberal and National MPs must choose – will they back our environment and ban the bag, or will NSW be an environmental embarrassment?  

We have two weeks to make sure the Parliament votes to ban the bag.

Just last week, NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean noted correctly that “some 50 million plastic bags end up in our oceans and waterways every year, so we have to ban the bag.”

Retailers are on board. The community wants government to act. And the rest of the country is waiting for us to catch up.

As a country, we once used 4 billion plastic bags every year, or 10 million every day. Now, NSW is the only state left. We are dead last, and it’s gone on long enough.

C’mon NSW. It’s time. Let’s ban the bag.

Sign the petition below to call on Gladys Berejiklian and the NSW Government to ban the bag, once and for all.

Background Information

• We use a single-use plastic bag for an average of 12 minutes. That same bag then spends 1,000 years in landfill, in our oceans, or on the side of the road.
• Every year, 6 million tonnes of rubbish are dumped into the world’s oceans. 80% of this is plastic bags.
• 1 million seabirds, and 100,000 sea mammals die every year from having eaten or being trapped in a discarded plastic bag.
• Here’s when the rest of Australia banned the bag:

• • • SA – 2009
    • NT & ACT – 2011
    • TAS – 2013
    • QLD – 2018
    • VIC & WA - 2019