Plastic bags

Like J. Gibbs and others, I dislike the term “single-use bags”.

Surveys have shown that most of them are, in fact, reused. I not only use one as a bin liner, I empty it into the black bag and put it back, as my rubbish doesn’t have things like meat scraps in it and I have a compost bin.

When the bag splits, I wash it and put it in one of the soft plastic recycling bins. I wash any soft plastic like cheese wrap and put it in one of these bins.

I do use tote bags but know that this isn’t the favour to the environment it’s made out to be. I find them more convenient, and have plastic bags in them in case of need.

I reuse the clear fruit and vegetable bags until they split and are recycled. Polypropylene bags are, of course, plastic, and have to be used many, many times before they break even environmentally.

Countdown is simply stopping giving one form of plastic bag away and selling another. If they can be recycled, I have yet to see a place to drop them off. I believe they are not biodegradable. If one tears, and they do tear easily, I suspect it will be thrown out rather than mended or recycled.

Pak’nSave has, to my mind, the best solution; they sell the bags and one has to make a conscious choice to take one. People bring them back and use them again.

Banning bags that are easily recyclable and replacing them with ones that aren’t is a feelgood thing rather than a wellplanned one. A.J. Read, Huntly.