Littering is one of this country's largest anti-social problems at the moment yet it receives virtually no public attention! People just "put up" with it, as with graffiti and vandalism. A government backed public awareness campaign may be the best way to convince that tiny percentage of the public who do litter to bin it instead. It is well known that all 3 of these problems lead to wider social problems as well.

Mark Transon, Birmingham, U.K.

It wouldn't matter how long plastic bags took to degrade if they were not littered. Close to 100% of plastic shopping bags end up in landfill or the waste-to-energy plant. Plastic bags in landfill are inert - i.e. they don't braek down - this means that they do not contribute to landfill emissions or leachate - so what is the problem?

A fraction of one percent end up as litter and they make up just 0.7% of litter in the UK. Wouldn't the best solution be to target the litterers?

When it comes to plastic in the oceans - it is clear that the vast majority of material comes from the fishing / shipping industry. the Figures of '100,000 marine mamals' you quoted in your article comes from a Newfoundland study on the impact of fishing nets on the seabird population that was misqoted by other authors. The '46,000 bits of plastic per square mile' is the result of authorities (MARPOL) insisting that waste disposed of at sea is ground up to a particle size of less than a square inch.

Gerard van Rijswijk, Sydney, Australia

This announcement came out last Friday, it has to be the answer, no oil in these, only potato starch which itself is carbon neutral, the LCA for them shows they are well ahead of petro-plastic bags for energy and CO2 as well as being compostable at home, you can use the bags for compostable food and garden waste !

29 February 2008 - Speculation re plastics

Stanelco's commercial and development activities take place in the UK, with manufacture provided by Biotec, its German subsidiary jointly owned with SPhere S.A. Stanelco recently invested in further capacity at the German production factory, enabling it to have the capacity of producing annually the bioplastics that could replace some 2.9 billion conventional plastic bags. That equates to approximately one per week for every man, woman and child in the UK.

The full announcement is here ....

http://production.investis.com/seo/regnews/rnsitem?id=1204278208nRNSc0408P

Paul, Jersey, CI

Our local supermarket has a well used bin for 'recycling' plastic bags. I use it, but worry about what happens to the stuff in the bin; visions of giant lorries crossing the country and perhaps ships carrying it all off to China... If only we could overcome our irrational concern about incineration we could burn them, recover the fuel value and save the turtles and the dolphins at the same time.

William Affleck, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire

what about a willow basket? naturally growing eco friendly material available in Britailn as a native shrub. if you do not have the skills to harvest and make your own there are suppliers, particulary in Somerset. try a search on the web.

cfleming, Duns, UK

Why does the government have to "enforce". The simple solution is to educate and leave the individuals to make a choice. Some will voluntarily stop others will not. Its a free society. isn't it?i

Hamad Lone, London, England

Just as I'm sick of blobs of chewing gum on every urban pavement in this country, so too am I sick of the sight of urban tumble weed and other rubbish that's indicative of human sloth. Whether any of it has any effect on the environment can be debated till your blue in the face, but what we can all do is make the effort to dispose of rubbish properly to make the place where we live more pleasant.

David, Cheshire,

"Surely there is no argument here. "

Yes there is. I don't buy bin bags, I use free plastic bags. I have no net plastic bag use. You stop them coming from the supermarket, and I have to buy bin bags (as has been demonstrated in Ireland).

The trouble is that to a socialist, everything is soluble with a law, rule or regulation. it isn't. The world is complex with interlocking problems, not amenable to a central diktat. Even the Government's advisers, WRAP, concluded that probably the status quo was the best of all the "solutions." Yet this isn't good enough for the humble Mr. Brown, who insist in the Daily Mail on yet more hectoring and rule making and will make the situation worse. The man will never learn.

Kay Tie, York,

I re-use my carrier bags - wherever they come from - as kitchen bin liners. If I didn't have them I'd have to buy plastic bin liners. I prefer to get free bags with my shopping. Though I suppose supermarkets factor them in to their costs so they're not free really. I don't particularly want to ahve to wash out my wheelie bin every time the rubbish is collected, whcih is what I'd have to do if I didn't use the bags for rubbish. Seems an insoluble problem to me unless everyone tries to sue carrier bags more than once - i.e. I never just use them once. It's the best I can do.

Jill, Boston, UK

We should introduce a ban on plastic containers. Full stop.

In years past I have helped carry home shopping in paper carrier bags whose bottoms fell out when damp, And then discovered the joys of the string bag. With the simple investment in a couple of balls of string and a book out of the library, we made a bag which was compact, light to carry and lasted for years. And when eventually it failed us, it rooted away in the compost within months.

Mike Poulsen, Reading, Berkshire

bread and circuses. keep the proles busy with trivial problems (botled water and plastic bags are going to destroy the planet - really ????) and then they wont be concentrating on the bigger problems.

Dr Kevin Law, Dundee, UK

Surely there is no argument here. Follow the example in France and, (with the exception of the likes of Lidl), make no "free" plastic bags available in UK supermarkets. The figures speak for themselves. Consumers here buy one bag and it lasts and lasts, so it follows "free" plastic bags must be better for lowering costs, natural resources, and the environment generally.

The green tax viewpoint is rubbish - there is no God given right that supermarkets should supply bags in the first place and panders more to GB not wishing to upset the idle.

Terry, L'Absie, France