I see that many of the big European supermarkets are gearing up to stop issuing plastic bags in their stores throughout the EU. This can only be a good thing, and about bloody time too!

Their various spokespersons are saying that the object is to raise people’s awareness of the importance of “re-using, recycling and reducing the consumption of plastic bags which are only used once”.

Ecologists have welcomed the decision, pointing out that the average plastic bag has a useful life of only 12 hours but takes 400 years to decompose.

Of course, it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that from 2010 they will be charging their customers 0.50 cents to 1 euro for each of their new re-usable bags!

Now, I have no idea how many people go through the supermarkets’ doors every day but apparently in Spain the consumption of plastic bags averages 238 per person a year. This puts it about third in the EU – not an enviable position.

With a population of roughly 40 million, that makes 9.5 billion bags a year – a huge market to be exploited in the name of the “environment”.

I’m all for cleaning up our environment and the planet in any way we can, but why does anything with the title “green” or “organic” or “environmentally friendly” have to come with a price tag to the poor consumer? It surely can’t be any more expensive to produce a bio-degradable bag than it is a plastic one.

Plus, if the supermarkets are so “concerned” about the pollution caused by their plastic, what are they going to do about the millions of polystyrene trays and the miles of clingfilm they throw at us every day?

So, are the supermarkets getting greener? Or greedier? What do you think?