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Mr Stout said the ban was a "brave" move from the major supermarkets and it was paving the way for smaller businesses, which typically cannot afford to risk the wrath of their customers, to follow suit.

"They [supermarkets] are obviously seen as the product stewards so a lot of people will come back to them," Mr Stout said.

"Obviously the best thing for smaller businesses is either to engineer out the bag completely or have the customer pay ... they should be able to consider that strategy without fear of backlash."

Mr Stout hopes major retailers will continue to lead the charge towards a more sustainable industry and move to ban other single-use packaging options.

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"Everyone delivering things in a package need to take responsibility for what they deliver it in," he said.

"I think there's going to be a lot more pressure on all of us to be more aware of what we consume."

With NSW the only state or territory in Australia that hasn't moved to legislate to phase out plastic bags, Mr Stout says it was time to step up and stop relying on the supermarket ban to do the work.

"We're still seeing a lot of small to medium bags being used, especially in the food category and, while I get some comfort that the majors have done this voluntarily, I think there still needs to be a ban in place," he said.

"For business, for the environment, for the consumer and of course even for councils which have to work to remove these things from landfills, there's a multitude of benefits on a whole to doing this."

AAP