High on the environmentalists list of products to be banned is the humble plastic shopping bag. We use billions of them each year - and they do destroy marine life and pollute the countryside when they are not disposed of properly.
Several towns and villages have successfully removed them from shops and alternative reusable green shopping bags found huge favour over a year ago. Unfortunately we are a forgetful nation. Their use has dwindled as the urge to be " green " wanes.
Many people have mounted a spirited defence of the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag. They claim that if it is banned then shoppers will simply have to replace it with commercial bags from the supermarkets to replicate the uses they have found for it.
Thousands are used as bin liners and many people reuse them for a range of purposes.
Then there is the matter of cost. Plastic bags are cheap and if their replacement is to be reinforced paper bags the added cost will find it's way onto the bill at the supermarket.
The government is considering either banning plastic bags outright - or imposing what would amount to a tax whenever they are provided.
The danger is that such an impost would probably spark immediate outrage - and then be accepted as is the case with steadily rising petrol prices. We grumble every time we fill the petrol tank - but we continue to buy the product out of necessity.
WE might grumble if we are slugged ten or twenty cents a bag, but within a matter of months it would become part of any normal transaction. There would be no benefit to the environment - and the government would have gained a nice, juicy additional tax base.
A message for the environmental lobby ! Be careful what you wish for !
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