Coles says it will continue to hand out thicker plastic bags at its checkouts for free indefinitely to help ease the customer transition to reusable bags.
The retailer's thicker reusable bags, called the Better Bag, which were to carry a 15 cent price tag from 1 August, will now be handed out for free.
Coles introduced the Better Bag for those that forgot to bring their own bags. It is made from 80 per cent recycled material and, according to Coles, is bigger, thicker and more durable than the previous bags.
The Better Bag can also be recycled through the REDcycle bins at Coles stores.
The retailer said that offering the bags for free was an interim measure to give customers more time to transition to reusable bags.
"Many customers bringing bags from home are still finding themselves short a bag or two so we are offering complimentary reusable Better Bags to help them complete their shopping," Coles said.
The director of eco organisation Boomerang Alliance Jeff Angel described the move as a "weak act”.
"These so-called reusable plastic bags are almost as thin as the banned lightweight ones. They have very limited life and the removed of the price signal also means they are more likely to be littered," he said.
