Single-use plastic bags will be a thing of the past at Woolworths and Coles checkouts in Port Stephens from July 1.

Australia’s two supermarket giants are leading the charge in NSW to phase out single-use plastic bags, instead favouring cloth or heavier duty plastic bags that can be used multiple times, in a move that environmentalists believe will only have a positive impact.

Terri-Ann Johnson, managing director of Clean Up Australia, said the organisation was “very supportive” of the phase out.

“There’s no value in these plastic bags being in the environment,” she said. “We will begin seeing a dramatic reduction in the number of grey bags found in the environment, which we’ve seen in other states with bans. 

“Because they are so lightweight and move around so much they [bags] create a lot of damage, especially when ingested. When they’re floating in the water they look a lot like jellyfish, they look like food, so they’re ingested by marine life.

“Anything that ingests a plastic bag either chokes or starves to death because it gets a gut full of plastic that has no nutritional value or is smothered. They also tear up into smaller pieces, so are entering the food chain early.”

Ms Johnson said that grey single-use plastic bags will continue to be found in the environment for years to come as people who have many at home continue to use them, but believed the phase out would go a long way to reducing the number of bags being found in places other than landfill.

Wooloworths alone will be removing 3.2 billion plastic bags from the environment nationally each year after the July 1 rollover to cloth and dual-use bags.

The move away from single-use plastic bags will also affect Woolworths Group stores including BIG W and BWS. Dan Murphy’s and Cellarmasters are already single-use plastic bag free.

“As a group we are committed to listening to our customers and also doing the right thing for the environment, and we feel this is an issue we need to take a stand on,” Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said.

“Whilst we know this is a major decision, we will work very closely with all of our store teams to ensure the transition for our customers is as simple as possible.” 

Simon McDowell, Coles Chief Customer Officer, said the move away from single-use plastic bags came after long consultations with non-government organisations and environmental groups, which was part of an ongoing program to improve “environmental outcomes throughout our business”.

“We know customers like the convenience of single-use bags, so we’ll make sure we have plenty of other options for them if they forget to bring their own bags from home,” he said.

Clean up events staged in Port Stephens in recent months has only highlighted how much plastic enters the area’s waterways and bushland.

More than 3000 pieces of plastic has been collected in Port Stephens and registered in the Australian Marine Debris Initiative Database since 2016.

Fran Corner, who has taken part in Clean Up Australia Day on the Tilligerry Peninsula for 30 years, said while the NSW Government’s Return and Earn scheme appears to have made a positive impact on the number of bottles being dumped in the environment, plastic bags still posed a “major problem”.

She said the phase out of plastic bags in Woolworths and Coles was a “very good thing”.

“We collect a lot of plastic bags during clean ups,” she said. “Plastic bags in the water are a major problem. We see them floating all over Bull Island.”

During a clean up of Salamander Bay earlier in March, group of Port Stephens oyster farmers collected 447 bottles and hundreds of plastic fragments.

“We’re out on the water most days. We get to see first-hand the impact of rubbish in the environment,” Dean Cole from Cole Bros Oysters said. 

“The health of the estuary means everything to us – without a healthy waterway, we wouldn’t be here.”

It followed a clean up of Nelson Bay in December where Sea Shelter collected 326 drink containers and 315 paper and plastic wrappers.

Following the clean up, organiser and Sea Shelter founder Lia Pereira said the rubbish collected had “barely scraped the surface”.

A group of hardworking volunteers has begun to target microplastics on Port Stephens beaches where the pollution threatens various forms of marine life.

The pieces of plastic, at times difficult to detect with the naked eye, have in parts of the world been tied to the death of fish that become "full" on it.

"It fills up their stomach to the point where they always feel full and they don't feel like eating so they starve to death," Ocean and Coastal Care Initiatives Port Stephens vice president Keith Green said.

Also read: Opinion | Turning the tables on plastic convenience 

OCCI volunteers have this year begun to use a device to collect these microplastics.

The microplastic filtration system was purchased from the United States and cost $380 delivered to Port Stephens.

At a glance it looks like a battlefield stretcher. Instead of canvas strung between two poles it has statically-charged mesh that is able to filter out pieces of plastic as small as a grain of sand.

OCCI has begun to use it at various Port Stephens beaches after a successful trial at Boat Harbour on Australia Day. Mr Green said the contaminants became readily visible when added to a jar containing water.

Studies have shown that marine plastics contain two types of chemicals: additive-derived chemicals and hydrophobic chemicals which are absorbed from the surrounding seawater.

OCCI was advised that if they collected these plastics from the beach that the debris should be placed in sealed plastic bags and not left in hot places.

"There's stories of these plastics giving off toxic gases in enclosed spaces like cars," Mr Green said. "These plastics are really nasty stuff."

OCCI will deploy the device at various beaches but Brooms Beach in particular with its high concentrations of plastic.

The materials tend to accumulate along the high tide line. Here, volunteers can shovel the top layer of sand onto the sieve to retrieve the microplastics.

"It takes a minimum of two people to physically lift and sift the sand with this device," Mr Green said. "We're prepared to loan it to other groups and based on the response we might buy more of them."

OCCI was established in Port Stephens a decade ago. Every piece of plastic and rubbish it collects is registered on the Taraonga Blue website - with 10 million pieces of plastic counted nationally on its database.

OCCI doesn't just collect rubbish, it helps prevent it from entering the water. It's TAngler bins have been placed at popular fishing spots, particularly on jetties, in recent years.

"In three and a half years our TAngler bins collected enough fishing line to stretch from here to Wollongong or Tamworth," Mr Green said. "That's 280 kilometres of fishing line that didn't go into the water."

People who wish to be involved are urged to take part in one of OCCI's regular accreditation sessions.

For more information on the courses or OCCI in general contact Keith Green on kpgreen@iprimus.com.au or 0435 240 959. Alternatively contact  president Jeannie Lawson on harvis@ozemail.com.au or 0414 414 291. 

From July 1 there will be no grey plastic bags available at Woolworths and Coles checkouts for you to pop your groceries into. Instead, you will need to either take your own bags shopping or buy a reusable bag at the checkout.

Both Woolworths and Coles have canvas, tote and eco-friendly reusable bags available to buy at checkouts as well as zip-up cooler bags. Prices range between 15 cents and $3, depending on which bag you opt to buy.