There's a news story doing the rounds (see 'Supermarkets clash with Benn on plastic bags') that says that the supermarkets are upset at the government plans to impose a plastic bag tax should the supermarkets 'voluntary' code not produce results.

How did this upset manifest itself? Go on guess?.. (not - ) Suprisingly it was in the form of a threat! The government will risk losing the co-operation of the supermarkets in future voluntary agreements.

And how well has this voluntary arrangement served us? Sir Terry of Tesco said in this 2006 article in the Guardian that "Tesco is good at marketing, which can sell the concept." Meaning they could sell the concept of people moving away from plastic carriers. Bear that in mind when you read that "Tesco said its usage is down 40 per cent" (Businessgreen.com 26 June 08) I think Tesco is just good at marketing!

What 'down 40%' doesn't tell you, is that even if we had this made this reduction on day one of their 2006 pledge, then by now, they would only have given away 4.8 billion environmentally dangerous bags (and counting!) in the last 2 years.

They're doing it for our good remember. In contrast, if anyone had listed to us and Abolished Plastic Bags 2 years ago then Tesco would have given away 0, zero, zilch, no plastic bags in that time. And it wouldn't have just been Tesco, we would have taken 34 billion environmentally dangerous bags out of the system in that time in the UK.

Don't believe the hype, take action now, and shop elsewhere!