Sir, - While much in favour of the intention of the levy on disposable shopping bags, I still find it too easy to throw away as much plastic as ever.
Free pedal-bin liners (the almost universal end-use for plastic shopping bags) have been replaced in most households by purpose-made articles which, at 3.5 cent each, seem good value compared with the 15-cent levy.
It appears, then, that neither the consumer nor the manufacturers of plastic bags will suffer much by the levy, but the environment will not benefit to any marked extent.
Further, it occurs to me that if one were to use and discard a dozen disposable shopping bags per day, one would be adding to the waste by, at most, 10 per cent of the plastic used to make a 1-litre plastic milk bottle, which carries no levy. Indeed, the cost of milk in such bottles is lower than that packaged in cardboard. Plastic milk containers should be banned.
Might I add another, related, thought? Nationalisation in this State has always been the result of the private sector being unable or unwilling to provide some essential industry or service. If the ailing glass plant which recycles the nation's booze bottles and jam jars cannot be run at a profit which justifies the capital commitment and effort involved, perhaps the State should buy it and aim to operate it on a break-even basis.
It seems that in the matter of waste reduction there has not been a lot done and there is more to do. - Yours, etc.,
MOIRITA EMERSON,
Reilly's Avenue,
Dublin 8.