Ban on plastic bags 'not worth the cost'

Ban on plastic bags 'not worth the cost' :

"Slower checkouts and retraining of retail staff could cost more than $1 billion over the next 10 years, which would be only partially offset by the environmental benefit of removing plastic bags from the litter stream."

What an absolute cop out and such a load of tommy rot!! Honestly. It's not just about money, but I doubt it'll cost more to get rid of them. For a start most people buy the bags on sale by supermarkets and other shops. Here they have become quite a fund raiser because you get the bags for the particular shops. Then there are people who make their own bags or there are some nice calico bags put out by various groups. All of that is making money. Since we have committed ourselves to saving our environment and not using plastic bags we have moved from the transition period into the routine maintenance phase. We all carry our shopping bags now. We all decline plastic bags. Shop owners never refuse us a plastic bag nor make it difficult, but they are always pleased when we have our own bag. It's been a team effort and a really sociable thing. Many of our bags have logos so we are advertising for companies or organisations and we seem to quite like it. But the best thing is you don't see the bags blowing around everywhere. I never see them on my drive to work anymore. I never see them in the gutters any more. I don't see them along the beaches. We have got rid of one of the biggest blights to the environment here. So move your bottoms and do something good for yourselves because the bottom line is people DO NOT clean up the bags...and our check outs have not slowed down at all. They are as efficient as ever.