Loading But Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the ban would not extend to bin liners or barrier bags because there were no other options. “It’s pointless to implement a ban on other bags where there are no alternatives for consumers,” she said. However, she insisted the government was acting to prevent single-use plastic bags from escaping the rubbish collection system and trashing the environment. “Victorians use more than a billion of these bags each and every year,” Ms D’Ambrosio said. “More than 10 million of these end up as litter in our environment. We know that’s not good enough.”

The proposed law, which needs to pass both houses of parliament, will make it illegal for retailers to provide the plastic carry bags to customers. Plastic pollution is doing major damage to Victorian waterways with research showing that an estimated 828 million items of rubbish flowed into Port Phillip Bay from the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers every year. Almost three quarters of that litter is microplastics. Victorian Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio says bin liners and barrier bags will not be banned because there are no alternatives. Credit:Mick Tsikas Victoria is one of the last states in Australia to introduce a ban on lightweight plastic bags. Major supermarkets have already moved to phase out single-use plastic bags.

Illustration: Matt Golding Credit: On Wednesday Coles announced it had diverted 1.7 billion bags from landfill since removing them from checkouts last year. Ms D’Ambrosio said the government was working with the National Retailers Association to prepare businesses for the ban. But many retailers, including supermarkets, are still selling thicker “reusable” plastic bags to customers for a small fee. The Boomerang Alliance, an environmental association, wants further action to ban the heavier bags.

Boomerang Alliance director Jeff Angel said there was an “unfinished agenda” on banning the sale of thicker bags. “They are still found in the litter stream and landfills,” he said. “Secondly there’s a lot of evidence that they’re not being reused. We’re still wasting a lot of plastic.” Patrick LaManna, chief executive of LaManna Supermarket in Essendon, said the legislation provided long-awaited clarity for independent businesses. “We’ve been waiting for this to happen, because there’s been confusion in the last few years with people thinking the legislation has come through,” he said. “For individual stores like us, if we wanted to customise our own style or thickness of a reusable bag, we haven’t been able to do that because we didn’t know what the conditions of the laws would be.”

Mr LaManna said that while he believed the ban would initially be a hassle for consumers, he is “all for it” with store management meeting on Thursday to plan for life without single-use plastic. American-style paper bags would be the “ideal” option, Mr LaManna said, but suitable Australian suppliers were currently limited. While Queen Victoria Market and South Melbourne market have already imposed plastic bans, Gary Zoabi, manager of Preston market, said he had been liaising with his 130 market stores for months to soften the transition to non-plastic. “We have been selling tote bags for a long time, and we send monthly newsletters to our tenants to keep them informed,” he said. “The demography here in Preston in changing rapidly, we’re getting a lot of people who are environmentally aware. Our customers also help to educate our longer term tenants here, showing them there is a demand for the movement to go environmentally friendly.

"I don’t think it will be a big shock. Everyone is more or less prepared for it, and bag suppliers will have to adopt to the new laws too.”