Ainslie IGA could extend a trial removal of plastic bags at its checkouts, making paper bags a permanent fixture and winning praise from Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
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Before the ACT introduced a ban on single-use plastic bags in 2011, about 10,000 bags were walking out the store's doors each week. In the years since the ban, the number of reusable plastic bags dropped to 2000 a week.
That number was still too high, say the store's managers Dimitri and Nick Mihailakis, and showed people weren't actually re-using the bags.
So as part of Plastic Free July they made the decision to only offer paper bags - taking a financial hit to do so, by selling them at 10 cents a bag, the same as for plastic.
The cost is something they are willing to manage.
"We haven't got a documented spreadsheet, but we're quite lucky that our customers support these initiatives. We are confident we can absorb this and it's not something we need to pass on. I think the cost to the environment is greater than any dollars and cents you can add up on a spreadsheet," Dimitri Mihailakis said.
The Environment Minister praised the initiative, along with a series of other measures run by the supermarket, which include the ability for people to bring their own containers for items from the deli, and reusable lunch containers and bamboo cutlery.
Locals who aren't customers can also benefit, with two bins for recycling soft plastics provided in the lane beside the store. Mr Mihailakis said they started with just one, but sometimes needed to empty it twice a day, making the second bin needed.
Ms Ley said the government had committed $160 million before the election to recycling schemes and the "circular economy".
But she baulked at introducing national rules to ban single-use plastic bags.
"Personally I don't think out and out bans work very well, they meet some resistance. But what we're seeing in this community, in this supermarket, the clients are stepping up and saying 'we want to do this'."
Ms Ley said she wanted to see the recycling manufacturing industry in Australia expand instead of waste being sent overseas, and that governments should match investments made by companies.