Monbiot’s voice of reason helps battle plastic bag scandal

In a blog published on The Guardian‘s website yesterday, Monbiot rails against the bags for life trend and terms the government’s and supermarkets’ attitude as a “fetishisation of the plastic bag as the root of all environmental evil”.

Moreover, he argues, as Packaging News and much of the industry has for some time, that plastic bags are an easy target for legislators and eco-warriors but that their elimination would have a miniscule effect on our society’s environmental impact.

All this is significant. Monbiot is not just a Guardian columnist; he is (arguably) the highest-profile commentator on environmental issues in the country. His coverage of this issue could, and here I am being hopeful, mark the start of a more sensible debate about what we should be doing to significantly reduce our environmental impact.

The fact is that getting rid of plastic bags is nothing more than a token gesture in environmental terms. It is symbolic but is a smokescreen through which we can claim to be green while driving and flying at will and still, to bring this back to packaging and the food supply chain, buying and then throwing away fruit, meat and vegetables that have been imported from half way around the world.

The government and the British Retail Consortium are wrong to focus on plastic bags with their ‘Get a Bag Habit’ campaign. Instead, they should be telling the public why they are useful and instead attacking areas of our consumption habits where a real, rather than symbolic, environmental improvement can be made.

George Monbiot’s comments should add some weight to what this industry has been saying for some time. I, for one, hope so.

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