By Juliet Speedy
Uproar in the North Island forced supermarkets to remove their five cent plastic bag levy but in the South Island the money is going to a good cause.
Five new heritage projects have already been funded from the bag charges, just two months after they were imposed.
A World War II gun emplacement in the Banks Peninsula is being relocated to Godley Head at the entrance to Lyttelton Harbour, as part of a new coastal historic defence site.
Grant Campbell, of the Department of Conservation, says the site aims to be as realistic as possible.
“Try and bring it back to what it would have looked like in the 1940s, hopefully sandbags around it to give that real World War II feel about it,” he says.
The guns at Godley Head provided peace-of-mind for Cantabrians during World War II, 70 years on and the site is being restored thanks to the five cent surcharge from supermarket bags.
The same charge North Islanders refused to pay.
Kent Mahon, of New World, says he believe North Islanders will accept the changes eventually.
“Once they (North Islanders) fully understand that the profits are going back into community work, such as the DOC projects, then it's a change they're happy to make,” he says.
It has only been two months since supermarkets started charging for plastic bags, but already $50,000 has been raised.
The money raised has gone to five separate conservation projects throughout the South Island.
The fee has also cut plastic bag consumption by 60 percent.
Russell McKenzie, owner of St Martins New World, says the fee was accepted by the majority of customers.
DOC says the charge has been great as it is hard to get money for historic projects.
“We would have ended up with a pile of concrete that we couldn't do anything with and thanks to this money it's going in and it's going to be installed,” says Mr Mahon.
In Auckland, Foodstuffs says it has no plans to reimpose the five cent charge on North Island shoppers.
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