Single-use plastic bag removal

From 1 July 2018, Coles no longer provides free light-weight single-use plastic carry bags in our stores in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

We are encouraging customers to bring their own reusable bags when shopping, but for a limited time if you forget your reusable bags we’ll provide complimentary reusable Coles Better Bags at every Coles and Coles Online in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. Excludes Coles Express and Coles liquor outlets.

We also have a range of more durable reusable bags available for purchase starting at $1, with a portion of proceeds supporting one of the following community organisations - SecondBite, Guide Dogs, Little Athletics and Clean Up Australia.

We committed to phasing out single-use plastic carry bags by 1 July 2018 across all our stores because we believe it is the right thing to do for the environment.

It will also bring our stores in New South Wales and Victoria in line with the ACT, the Northern Territory and South Australia where Coles already complies with legislation banning light weight single-use plastic carry bags, and with Queensland and Western Australia which introduced bag bans from 1 July 2018.

Our announcement in July 2017 followed several months of consultation with our customers and environmental groups on a plan to transition away from single-use bags.

To help with the transition, if you forget to bring your own bags, we’re providing complimentary reusable Coles Better Bags for a limited time in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.

We will not be offering any single-use plastic carry bags at any Coles businesses after we phase out single-use plastic bags including shopping online.

For Click&Collect customers collecting from a Coles Supermarket Service Desk, Coles Express or Locker location, groceries will be packed into Coles Better Bags, at a cost of 15c per bag.

Home delivery and Click&Collect customers collecting from a Coles Supermarket Concierge location will be presented with two bagging options when you place your online order:

• No bags. Your groceries will be delivered in a crate, which will be carried to your kitchen bench or unpacked at your car. Some items such as fruit and vegetables will continue to be provided to you in clear fresh produce bags without handles, or
• Bagged. Your groceries will be delivered bagged and carried to your kitchen bench or car. The bags used for your delivery will be the Coles Better Bags, at a cost of 15c per bag, which can be returned to your customer service agent or Coles Team Member for recycling.

Whilst there is a delivery fee for our home delivery and Coles Express Click&Collect service options – this has not changed due to the phasing out of single use plastic carry bags and there is no additional cost to have your groceries delivered to your kitchen bench or to your car.

For more information about what these changes mean for you when shopping online with Coles please click here.

We no longer offer free light-weight single-use plastic carry bags across any Coles businesses including Coles Express. In case you need to buy a bag, the Better Bag will be available in all Coles Express sites.

We no longer offer single-use grey plastic carry bags as of July 1 2018. Customers will continue to have available fully recyclable brown kraft bottle bags (free) as well as 6 bottle wine bags which are free for purchases of 5 or more bottles or just $1.00 for purchases less than 5 bottles.

We also be offering a new fully recyclable shopping bag for 10 cents. This is a heavy duty reusable bag which will comfortably hold a six pack of beer and two bottles of wine.