The Western Australian government announced yesterday that lightweight, single-use plastic shopping bags will be banned from 1 July 2018.
The people of Fremantle can claim the announcement as a win Mayor Brad Pettitt said, as they have been pushing for a ban on plastic bags for more than five years.
“The City of Fremantle’s efforts to ban plastic bags have been strongly supported by the Fremantle community, retailers and the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce.”
The City of Fremantle’s position on plastic bags evolved from a strong community campaign, including a petition with over 1000 signatures requesting the removal of plastic bags from the city.
“Twice we have introduced a local law to ban businesses from providing single-use non-biodegradable plastic bags to customers, and both times the measure was blocked in State Parliament.
“I’m thrilled that the City of Fremantle has been a leader in this debate, which has resulted in a great outcome for our environment.”
The original local law was disallowed in the Legislative Council in 2013 and a revised law was again disallowed in 2015.
In April 2017, council adopted the Plastic Bag Reduction Local Law for the third time.
South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory already have plastic bag bans in place, and Queensland will also introduce a ban next year.
