The Bentleigh Farmers’ Market have adopted a No Plastic Bag Policy

• Stallholders are not allowed to provide customers with any plastic carry bags. They are allowed to provide paper bags and encourage customers to bring their own bags.
• The BFM team actively promote the BYO bag policy and program on all market literature and advertising material.
• Re-usable jute bags are available for sale at every market.

An educational process is underway for public and stallholders to phase out the use of any other plastic bags at the market, i.e. “bagged produce” except where food safety requirements exist through:

• Actively promoting the use of paper bags, reusable containers, and reusable bags
• Selling reusable fruit and vegetable mesh bags at the market
• Highlighting good practise at our market via this website and social media.
• Encouraging stallholders to support customers who bring their own containers for refill for example honey jars, and olive oil bottles.

Why bother with a NO plastic bag policy?

Australians used around 5.6 billion single-use plastic shopping bags in 2004. That’s almost one bag for every person in Australia every day of the year! Plastic bags are a huge environmental problem for several reasons:

• The world uses a staggering 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags every year. The average use for each bag is only 12 minutes![i]
• Plastics are produced by non-renewable natural resources including crude oil, gas and coal. The extraction and processing of these products contributes to climate change.
• These bags take around 1000 years to break down. The result of which is a mammoth waste problem, both on land and in the sea.
• Plastic bags are responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of marine birds each year and around 100 000 marine mammals. They also responsible for the death of many land based animals.[ii]
• Nearly half a million plastic bags are collected on Clean Up Australia Day each year and as well as being harmful, they are an eyesore, and dirty the natural environment.

What are the other benefits of using the BFM bags, and other reusable bags?

As well as reducing the number of plastic bags in our environment reusable bags, are a more effective shopping bag. They are much stronger than plastic bags, and can carry twice as much produce. They are also much easier to carry, with more comfortable handles. So come on down to the market, with your own reusable bag or buy one of ours!

[i] http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id=14

[ii] http://www.nomorebaggage.org/facts.php

For all enquiries regarding the No Plastic Bag Policy, contact Sarah at personnel@bentleighfarmersmarket.org.au.