Green Options

China. The UK. Ireland. Germany. Australia. San Francisco. Malibu. The list of countries and cities eliminating or considering banning plastic bags continues to grow. Some prohibit them all together, while others charge a fee to carry away groceries in that plastic that often finds its way to landfills.

I apologise profusely for having brought that advert to an international audience, but I had to. It’s cathartic to share.

I shudder at the voice-over to such an extent that I need to lie down in a darkened room afterwards and gnaw at my knuckles. Hideous snobbery. What were the creatives thinking?

But to M&S. Or Marks and Spencer, to give them their full title, a clothing and food store from here in the UK who in an announcement to the press state:

“Marks & Spencer is to roll-out a 5p charge for food carrier bags in all of its UK stores from the beginning of May to encourage customers to reduce the number of bags they use and to raise money for environmental projects.”

The city of New York is the latest government considering restrictions on plastic shopping bags, with a proposal in the works to require large stores to offer in-house recycling and reusable bags for sale. But is action like that enough to stop the plastic bag scourge?

From Africa to Canada, Australia to Ireland, and in the oceans in between, plastic bag trash has become a pestilence seemingly without end. And

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