The average Australian uses 170 plastic bags every year. 150 million of these bags end up as litter and only 3% are recycled. Worldwide the problem is even larger, with 2 million bags being used each minute.

Reusable bags were introduced as a solution to the vast amount of plastic bags wasted every year. A federal senate inquiry in July 2018 recommended all governments phase out single-use plastics by 2023 and the work is already underway. NSW is the only territory in the country without a firm commitment to ban single-use bags.

However, according to a 2009 study by Dr Verghese, reusable bags need to be used at least 50 times in order to be environmentally friendly. Green bags especially take a lot more material and energy to create than regular plastic bags and as such Dr Verghese recommends we use these types of bags at least 104 times, which is the equivalent of once a week for two years. If these bags are used less than 52 times their impact on global warming is actually greater and that of single use plastic bags.

So while we try hard to prevent some of the 200,000 bags that are dumped in landfill every hour going to waste, we also have to be very careful that our solutions don’t do more harm than good.

Enter BagNag. BagNag is a nifty new app that uses geofencing to help people remember to grab their green bags out of the car before going shopping at their local supermarket. BagNag can help people save time and money by preventing them from either having to walk back to their cars to retrieve forgotten bags, or purchase new bags at the checkout. BagNag also helps protect the environment, by ensuring people really are reusing their bags, instead of doubling up by purchasing bags that will just sit around the house and eventually end up in the garbage bin.

BagNag is easy to use, you simply select your favourite Coles and Woolworths stores and whenever you come within 100m of a shopping centre you nominated, BagNag will send an alert to your phone, reminding you to bring your bags. There is no need to open the app, the reminder is automatic! BagNag costs the equivalent of one green bag purchase ($0.99) and will save you time and money, all whilst helping the environment.

BagNag is available on IOS and Android and can be found on the Apple Store and Play Store.