Don't outlaw plastic bags

CHANGE is good when it improves things but when it's mismanaged by people who don't think through the consequences it can be disastrous.

I've been waiting for the ladies of Lowestoft to object to the notion of doing away with supermarket carrier bags.

Surely the female shoppers who run most of the local households have realised what will happen if these bags are outlawed?

Is it men who have drawn up the statistics showing most bags are only used once and for twenty minutes? What about those lining waste paper baskets? I've got eight. What about deadheading, light weeding and summer pruning in the garden? What about swimmers who carry their wet bathing things?

What about anglers and picnickers who clear up their mess? What about dog walkers who clean up after their pets? What about wet shopping like meat, fish, bacon and even a bunch of flowers?

What about the one in the car for all the rubbish or the muddy wellies in the boot? What about their hundred and one other uses in daily life?

We'll all have to buy new plastic bags from the supermarkets! That's what! We'll need to use just as many but we'll have to pay for them that's what!

Why, oh why, instead of the time and paper pushing involved in outlawing supermarket carrier bags, do the council not invest in the specialised equipment to recycle them?

It must be possible because the supermarkets collect them for recycling.

Plastic bags are one of the greatest and most used inventions of the twentieth century so why should we have to do without them because a small number of thoughtless councillors don't think through the results of their actions i.e. more expense for the householder, greater profits for the supermarkets and still the same number of plastic bags going to landfill when they could be recycled after they've been used several times.

ERIC BENN

St Georges Road

Lowestoft