Coles has promised to phase out soft-plastic shopping bags in-store and online by the end of next month. The supermarket chain says its remaining supply of soft-plastic bags will be run down in the coming weeks and it will cease selling them by the end of June. The move to reduce unnecessary packaging at the…

Australia’s major supermarket chains will not receive any more time to move high-risk soft plastic stockpiles from the failed REDcycle recycling scheme after an extension request was denied. Coles and Woolworths were issued with a draft clean-up notice for 5200 tonnes of plastic stored at 15 sites in NSW earlier this year. New South Wales (NSW) Environment Protection…

Two major Australian supermarket chains have reported significant profit growth for the first half of the 2022-2023 financial year, which they attributed to their efforts in meeting customers’ demand and a reduction in COVID-19 related costs. Woolworths Group, which owns the largest supermarket chain in the country–Woolworths, and a number of retail businesses such as…

About 12,400 tonnes of soft plastic from suspended recycling program REDcycle could fall under the control of Coles and Woolworths as the two supermarket giants offer to pick up the bill. REDcycle, Australia’s largest soft plastic recycling scheme, paused its activities in November 2022, after The Age newspaper revealed it had been stockpiling plastic for…

Many Australian dairy farmers will receive a boost to their bottom line as a major supermarket chain has offered to pay more for their milk as it seeks to contain a surge in dairy prices. The Herald Sun reported that Coles, the second-largest supermarket chain in Australia, had offered to pay farmers up to 22…

An Australian child has been admitted to hospital after eating a toxic batch of spinach.  The Queensland child is one of more than 100 people across Australia who have reported a possible food-related toxic reaction after eating the “Riviera Farms” branded baby spinach. NSW Health on Dec. 17 said that 88 people in the state have…

California-based ecomodernist Michael Shellenberger has said that the collapse of Australia’s largest plastic bag recycling program was expected as plastics cannot be recycled and are often shipped to poor nations where it risks being dumped into the ocean. It comes amid revelations that the REDcycle team was stockpiling instead of recycling millions of soft plastics—plastic…

Australian consumers will have to bear with the current fruit and vegetable shortages for another six weeks before seeing improvements, while supply will not return to normal until September. Ash Salardini, the acting chief executive of the National Farmers’ Federation, said the cause of empty supermarket shelves could be traced back to the extreme weather…

The Boomerang Alliance, an environmental group that represents over 50 environmental and government organisations have criticised Coles new reusable bags made from plastic marine waste as a “not genuinely reusable.” “Coles have missed a golden opportunity to reduce the use of wasteful plastic bags by continuing to sell disposable shopping bags,” said Toby Hutcheon, Campaign…

Australian supermarket giant Coles has announced it will allow trans and gender-diverse staff to take up to 10 days of paid gender affirmative leave in a bid to promote gender diversity. The move came on Wednesday, one day after International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia. On Wednesday, David Brewster, Coles Chief Legal and Safety…