Supermarket giant Coles stop selling single-use plastic tableware and cutlery by July 1

A huge change is coming to Coles after the supermarket giant announced it will soon stop selling single-use plastic tableware and cutlery. 

From July 1, Coles customers will no longer be able to purchase plastic products such as cups, plates, bowls, straws and cutlery.

The ban on plastics is predicted to reduce 1.5 million tonnes of the material ending up in landfill each year. 

The company is hoping the move helps the environment, as well as responding to its customers’ needs, said CEO Steven Cain. 

The supermarket giant announced it will soon stop selling single-use plastic products

‘Ensuring the sustainability of our business is essential to our future success and being the first major Australian supermarket to commit to removing all single-use plastic tableware from our stores is central to our ambition to be Australia’s most sustainable supermarket,’ Mr Cain said. 

Single-use plastic tableware accounted for 18 per cent of the items collected by volunteers, said Clean Up Australia Chairman Pip Kiernan. 

‘Too many of these items end up in our parks, waterways, beaches and roadsides and if left there damage our precious environment for hundreds of years, outliving all of us,’ Ms Kiernan said.

‘We applaud Coles for listening to their customers and taking the lead in replacing these single use plastic items.’

Coles CEO Steven Cain said the company was working to help the environment and responding to its customer’s needs by no longer selling plastic products by July 1

The Australian Packing Covenant released a resource to help Australia’s packaging supply chain cut out ‘problematic and unnecessary’ single-use plastic packaging last December.  

The resource included initiatives from supermarket giants Coles, Woolworths, McDonalds and Aldi as industry best practice case studies. 

The resource will help create change in Australia’s packaging supply chain to achieve the 2025 National Packaging Targets, said Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management, Trevor Evans. 

‘We want Australians to be confident that our recyclable materials are not dumped in landfill or left to pollute our oceans and waterways’, he said. 

Mr Evans has also welcomed the move by Coles, with single-use plastic tableware to be phased out across the country by July 1, 2021. 

South Australia will be the first state in the country to ban single-use plastic, with state law to remove plastic products by March 1, 2021.  

The ban on plastics is predicted to reduce 1.5 million tonnes of the material ending up in landfill each year