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