Packaging is our hidden shame

Published on 01/07/2012 00:00

THERE was something depressingly predictable in the reporting of the government’s consultation on a range of environmental proposals, including charging for carrier bags from all shops (News, 24 June).

To call the charge a bag “tax” is misleading and colours opinion from the start. Taxes are obligatory, but people don’t need to use disposable bags. Plastic bags mess up the landscape and damage wildlife and use up non-renewable resources. Packaging is the hidden shame for Scotland as well as the rest of the UK, and plastic bags are just the tip of the rubbish heap.

The consultation gives a statement of good intent and should be seen in the context of a much broader, integrated zero-waste strategy. Given the inevitable challenges in achieving behavioural change, the government will no doubt give consideration to the carrots as well as the sticks needed to support the proposals being discussed.

Nathan Goode, Grant Thornton, Edinburgh