The first was to tell me that I was behind the times, and that there had been this piece on the BBC website about how successful the reduction had been.
Curiously billed as a failure, because they were hoping to reduce usage by 50%, the Supermarkets had reduced usage by 48%. Apparently this extrapolates out to 346 million carrier bags per month that have been saved.
Which is amazing for one good reason: with the exception of a couple of smaller outlets, this has been done without a financial disincentive for using a disposable bag. I'm very impressed with what the sphere of social conscience can manage without government interference if it wants to.
This makes the final comment on the article slightly confusing:
As a result, some environmentalists are now calling for a charge of up to 15 pence for each disposable carrier bag.Why?! If we can effect this kind of change without having to push it top down from the nanny state, doesn't it tell you that we don't need taxes to change behaviour?
The other email pointed out that I should be filling the charity bags with all my disused clothes etc. Of course, I know this, it's just that I only throw clothes away when they have holes in and my wife just doesn't allow me to buy enough clothes to keep spring cleaning*.
* All those who know me will know that's not true and that I'm a reluctant shopper - but I just couldn't help myself.
