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Reasons for a charge placed on plastic supermarket shopping bags

I can't see what the problem is in charging for plastic supermarket bags. I live in France where there are no free supermarket bags. You either buy a strong reusable bag at the supermarket or take your own. Here it is possible to buy a cloth shopping bag and even a proper old fashioned shopping basket and one even sees young, fashionable, chic and elegant women using them. The French countryside is not adorned by errant plastic bags and everyone takes their litter home with them or disposes of it in the proper manner.

When I visit my family in England, where supermarkets still give out free plastic bags the results are immediately apparent. As soon as I leave the airport on the train I can see the beautiful English countryside is often despoiled by the carrier bags which blow around unchecked, having escaped from land fill sites, rubbish tips, dustbins and just from being thrown out of car windows. Not only do they look unsightly but by their very presence encourage more litter and fly tipping.

It is not difficult to get into the habit of once you have unpacked your shopping at home to put the empty shopping bags back into the boot of the car ready for the next shopping trip. Also more than once we have found that having the shopping bags in the boot was very useful for other purposes e.g once we were unexpectedly given some plants and were able to stand the on the shopping bags and avoid marking the carpet in the car.

Some people think it is old-fashioned to use shopping bags or baskets, I can't see what is cool about plastic grocery bags. People should also remember that plastic is a product made from oil. Why should we use oil to make endless plastic shopping bags when there is an easy and better alternative, after all we may need the oil for other far more important things.

The comparison between the two countries makes clear the old adage that people don't value what they get for free. No supermarket anywhere in the World should be giving out free plastic shopping bags, and if supermarkets won't stop giving out free bags then governments should impose a tax on them, before they cost us the Earth.

Learn more about this author, M.Collins.
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