Target Bans the Bags in South Australia

Yesterday I went to Target to buy some cycling gloves, and all around me disposable plastic bags were in full effect. I know that Australia is a day ahead of me in terms of time zones, but apparently–when it comes to environmentalism–the superstore conglomerate is light years ahead, because starting in December Australian Target locations are making the switch to compostables and reusables exclusively.

Legislation to ban single use plastic bags has been passed by the State’s lower house and is currently being debated by the upper house.

The opposition is expected to oppose the legislation, but the Government is hoping to get the support of the minor parties to get it through.

If passed, plastic bags will be banned from January 1 but businesses will have until May to comply with the new rules.

A large business, staying a step ahead of legislation? Inconceivable! And yet, it’s true. Target is starting their phasing out of plastic bags a good month ahead of the curve. It’s something to be proud of, and I’m not the only one who thinks so:

Environment Minister Jay Weatherill said Target had shown the type of corporate leadership needed to help the environment.

“Here we see a fantastic corporate citizen, Target, stepping up to the plate and showing leadership,” he said.

“This really demonstrates that corporate criticised are deicing this is a good ting to do.

“It’s fantastic for the environment, it of course prevents all of those plastic bags ending up in our marine environment and blowing around our suburbs.”

You go, Target! But next time… want to take that initiative on the rest of the world as well?

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 2:26 pm and is filed under The Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.