In the land down under, where the kangaroos hop and the beaches glisten, a new problem has emerged in the urban jungle, leaving millions of Australians scratching their heads.

The issue is a mountain of reusable shopping bags piling up in homes, with no clear solution. It's a problem that's as perplexing as a platypus, and it's got shoppers talking.

Troy Holmes, a Sydneysider, voiced the concern that echoes through countless Aussie households.

With 'hundreds' of reusable bags cluttering his space, he stated, ‘Now, I can’t be the only one that has, like dozens and dozens of these f****** bags from Coles and Woolworths".’

Millions of Australian households are collecting unwanted Coles and Woolworths bags; a shopper suggests adding in-store drop-off points to help. Credit: TikTok

‘What I don’t understand is, why can’t they have a spot where I can take all my usable bags and leave them at Coles and Woolies near the counter so that people don’t buy bags, they just reuse the reusable bags.’

‘I feel bad recycling them because you can f****** use them ... it’s annoying. I want a solution,’

Leading retail expert Professor Gary Mortimer from the Queensland University of Technology has weighed in.

‘The problem is, we always forget to bring our bags, so we will also forget to donate them too,’ he said.

‘There is also the contamination issue.’

‘You don’t want your fresh fruit and vegetables going into a bag that contains bleach and cleaning products.’

‘Also, how do supermarkets control it? The donation bins will eventually end up overflowing with bags, so there's an aesthetics issue.’

‘It will look messy. People will not be donating their best quality bags, but those with holes in them.’

‘I don’t know how many bags are given away or purchased every week, but there are millions of bags sitting in pantries. It is a problem. I forgot my bags in the back of the car or left them at home.’

Some community members have suggested donating spare bags to op shops, and charities like Vinnies New South Wales have opened their doors to clean and undamaged reusable supermarket bags.

A Coles spokesperson stated that the retailer continuously seeks to simplify recycling for customers.

Adopting paper bags led to removing 230 million plastic bags from circulation within a year.

‘While we don’t currently offer a reusable bag drop off option in-store, all our paper bags can be reused multiple times and are made from 100 per cent recycled paper that can be recycled conveniently in kerbside bins if no longer required,’ the spokesperson said.

‘The most sustainable option is to bring your own reusable bag to the supermarket, but for those who forget to bring them or don’t have a bag with them when they shop, we continue to sell other 100 per cent recycled paper bags, as well as other reusable carry bag options.’

A Woolworths spokesperson explained that their paper bags are intended for repeated use and can be easily recycled at home once customers are finished with them.

‘While we know that eight in 10 of our customers bring their own reusable bags when they shop, we understand it’s easy to forget them from time to time when you’re on the run,’

In other news, Woolworths faces customer criticism for a major flaw in its new reusable Christmas paper shopping bags.

Shoppers report that the 25-cent bags tear easily. Read more about it here.

Key Takeaways

• Millions of Australian households are accumulating unwanted Coles and Woolworths reusable bags, and one shopper has suggested a novel idea to reduce this issue by having drop-off points for reusable bags in stores.
• Retail expert Professor Gary Mortimer highlights such a system's challenges, including forgetfulness, contamination, and control over the condition and overflow of donated bags.
• Coles has seen a reduction in plastic bag circulation by introducing paper bags made from 100% recycled paper and encourages customers to recycle them or bring their reusable bags.
• Woolworths offers paper bags for multiple uses and has implemented reminders for customers to bring reusable bags, including signage and an alert option in their app.

Have you found a clever way to manage your collection of reusable bags? Share your tips and tricks in the comments below.

 

[Towing]

Why are the supermarkets not using the boxes that they unpack the stock from? They are free to the customer, it saves wastage from the supermarket & also time for one of the workers to crush them. There are a few shops throughout the country areas in Qld that use the boxes for peoples groceries. I mentioned this to my local supermarket owner & he claimed that the container to keep the boxes in would cost too much to get made.

There is a few smaller supermarkets that do that, including country area ones. It depends how the boxes are opened whether or not they can be reused. I re-use my plastic shopping bags until they split. Before bags were charged for Drake Supermarkets encouraged people to re-cycle their bags. The introduced a card system. Your card was stamped with the number of bags you supplied yourself. When your card was full you got $1.00 off a grocery bill. With a family to feed we saved a few dollars every year.

 

[Towing]

@siameezer why the angry emoticon?? Because I told the truth?? Sick of people expecting strangers on social media to fix their problems!!! you do realise we have recycle bins that take the bags???...obviously that has escaped your knowledge and Troy Holmes' also...

I've noticed at some of them don't have the recycle bins now.