A supermarket chain is being praised by environmental groups after it announced plastic bags would largely vanish from outlets by the end of 2018.
The move by Progressive Enterprises would result in the removal of 350million plastic bags from New Zealand's waste output, Countdown managing director Dave Chambers said
Wanaka Wastebusters communications officer Gina Dempster said she was ''thrilled'' by the move.
''I think that it's obviously well overdue in New Zealand, and the fact both supermarket chains are looking at changing the use of plastic bags shows that they are listening to people.''
Progressive's announcement follows an announcement by Foodstuffs it would poll consumers to see if there was support to charge 5c or 10c per plastic bag.
Foodstuffs New Zealand managing director Steve Anderson said he was pleased to see another retailer ''taking a stance on targeting a date for removing single use plastic bags''.
Foodstuffs was looking forward to finding out the results of its poll, he said.
Greenpeace spokeswoman Elena Di Palma said the move to phase out bags was stronger than that taken by any political party.
Countdown would lower the price of its reusable bags to encourage the transition from plastic, though some plastic bags would still be used.
