Supermarket managers in Canberra were busy responding to customer complaints yesterday after the plastic bag ban took effect in the capital.
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While greenies welcomed the end of lightweight plastic bags in the ACT, others were enraged by the ban.
Store manager of IGA Yarralumla Nick Bakavgas said ''a lot'' of complaints were made about the cost of new bags.
Other people were simply annoyed upon hearing plastic bags were no longer available.
One customer refused to pay 10c per new bag. ''She threw all her stuff in a trolley and stormed out,'' Mr Bakavgas said.
The store previously used about 5000 plastic bags per week.
Mr Bakavgas expected to see more people shopping with their own bags in the coming weeks.
''People are annoyed that they can't use the old bags at home in their bins any more,'' he said. ''They say, 'What am I going to use at home?'''
''But there are others who say paying for the [new] bags reminds them to bring their own.''
Store manager at Superbarn in the city, Andrew Savli, said people seemed to have adjusted to the change yesterday, as a number of shoppers brought their own bags rather than paying 5c for one.
He also said public servants who came in to buy a few pieces of fruit each day were leaving carrying the fruit rather than putting it in a plastic bag as usual.
Woolworths at Woden went through about 50,000 bags per week before the ban.
Store manager Gil Diehm said some people at the supermarket were inconvenienced by the ban yesterday.
''Customers say, 'Put as much as you can in the bag', and I can see a few accidents happening with the way they're loading them up,'' he said. ''I think we'll see more people bringing their own bags, but I haven't seen any more than normal at this stage.''
Kirsty McNichol, of Curtin, said her family was ''divided'' on the plastic bag ban. While she has been taking her own bags to the supermarket for years, mainly due to convenience, her husband has a different approach. He believed the ban was an ''impingement on people's personal liberty''.
''He's really annoyed,'' she said. ''We used to use the free plastic bags as bin liners, so when we ran out of them I'd put groceries in plastic bags. I heard that bin bag sales doubled in South Australia - we'll certainly be in that category as well.''
While John Gray, of Griffith, thought the bag ban would take time to get used to, he believed it would minimise the amount of plastic bags Canberrans used.
Colin Love, of Murrumbateman, said, ''The last couple of weeks we realised we were going to have to start bringing our own bags. It's an inconvenience. We used to use our bags for our bins as our garbage liner, so I've bought garbage bags today. I think it's a proposal with good intentions, we'll just have to wait and see if it works.''
Jennifer Thew, of Bonner, said it was annoying when you forgot your bag, ''but [paying] 15c is nothing''.
Visitor Shelah Perrot, of Western Australia, said, ''I always bring my own bags. I think the ban is a good idea.''
