Three months after Coles and Woolworths made the decision to stop offering free single-use plastic bags in stores across Australia, the country's plastic bag use has dropped by a whopping 80 per cent -- that's around 1.5 billion less plastic bags being introduced into the environment.

Even if you do all your shopping with reusable bags, you’re going to end up with a bunch of plastic. Your bread comes in it, your toilet paper, your organic carrots and non-GMO freekeh from the bulk bin and no, it can’t be recycled with your bottles and cans. The same goes for all the plastic that swaddles your online purchases.

Woolworths’ and Coles’ bans on plastic bags have been applauded by environmental groups, but were reportedly met with abuse and assault and claims of profiteering. This reaction is due to supermarkets breaching their “psychological contract” with customers - and when both major supermarkets appeared to back flip in the face of irate customers it only compounded the problem".

The plastic bag ban by the major supermarkets (and Coles’ pivot away from its ban after backlash, then pivot back to the ban after a backlash to the backlash) has left plenty of people scratching their heads.

What are the best replacements for single-use plastic bags? Given that reusable bags are much sturdier, how many times must we use them to compensate for their larger environmental impact?

Plastic devotees, rejoice! Everyone else, be bewildered at the people for whom the idea of bringing a reusable bag is just too hard a concept to grasp. Coles has decided to continue giving out its 15c plastic 'Better Bags' for free indefinitely, as people are apparently still struggling with the idea of a plastic-free life.

To soften the exile of the single-use plastic bag for customers, Coles and Woolworths are offering shoppers bonus points — be they flybuys or Rewards — for the next few days, as long as you don't buy either's reusable bags.

This week will see Australians take a significant step towards that plastic-free future, with major supermarkets turning their backs on throwaway plastic bags, and an outright ban on free plastic bags at shops in Queensland and Western Australia. A Senate report this week recommended a ban on single-use plastics such as takeaway food containers and plastic-lined coffee cups by 2023.

It is remarkable how far we have already come in the effort to reduce our plastic pollution. We are rapidly reaching the point at which the relevant question is not “which plastics can we do without?”, but “which single-use plastics do we genuinely need?”

If you're in the midst of planning a shopping trip to your local Coles, be sure to bring some bags with you! Starting from today, you won't be able to get free ones from the supermarket... but you can pay for reusable ones.

Turns out Australians aren't quite ready to live a life without plastic bags just yet. In the wake of Woolworths removing single-use plastic bags entirely from its stores last week, the company has backflipped on that decision.

Woolies stores will be giving out 'reusable' plastic bags for free between now and Sunday July 8, as a means of easing the transition and getting customers into the habit of bringing their own bags.

From June 20, Woolworths, Big W, BWS, and a bunch of other stores will be self-banning plastic shopping bags in NSW. This includes online shopping, which will now carry additional fees. Here are the details.

First its Select range of products and now the humble plastic bag! It's political correctness gone mad I tells ya! Except, you know, it's not. Woolworths had decided to do what's best for the environment and by June 20, it'll have killed off single-use plastic bags in all of its stores.