Steve Price's rant on The Project over plastic bag ban: "This is a bloody con job!"
Steve Price has received backlash after delivering an on-air rant about the plastic bag ban while on The Project.
Last night, the Australian radio presenter declared in the bizarre interview: “This is a bloody con job!”
At the beginning of the interview, Price argued how useful single-use plastic bags are when he needs to pick up dog poop in his backyard.
“I want to see these greenies from the inner suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney, slothing around with their netted bags, to nick off and leave me alone so I can go shopping properly,” he said on the show.
“I can’t put my dog poo in a see-through bag.
“What people do is, take them (single-use bags) home and put their garbage in them and put them in their bins or use them to pick up dog droppings. I used four today.”
Price accused supermarkets of being hypocritical for only banning single-use plastic bags, as he pulled out plastic cutlery and a plastic bag for bananas that he picked up from an unnamed store.
Price then displayed a graph of “countries polluting the oceans most” and passionately waved it at the screen.
“China, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Brazil and the United States, we’re not even on the list,” he said.
Some viewers accused Price of being petulant about the ban which aims to reduce waste.
“Aldi has been doing the bag thing for ages, the others are just catching up. Also you can buy a roll of dog poo bags… easy,” one viewer wrote on Twitter.
Another asked, “How are the other countries relevant? So are you saying it’s ok for us to pollute if it’s less than them?”
However, there were some viewers that agreed with Price’s tirade.
“I agree with Steve. Bring back the plastic bag.”
Woolworths is leading the charge of the ban, with free grey plastic bags no longer available in stores as of yesterday.
Coles will remove all single-use plastic bags from stores nationally by July 1.
Steve Price’s outburst follows some sustainability experts questioning the ban.
“The single use plastic bag ban is a positive step to try and reduce resources but that’s tempered by the fact people need to use reusable bags wisely,” Trevor Thornton, a lecturer in hazardous materials management at Deakin University, told news.com.au.
UNSW’s Professor Sami Kara, who specialises in sustainability and life cycle engineering, said that while the ban was useful, it was a “short-term solution”, reported news.com.au.
What are your thoughts on the plastic bag ban in supermarkets? Let us know in the comments below.