Garrett wants bags gone by year's end

Garrett wants bags gone by year's end: "'Plastic bags are a part of our lives - if we replace them we are going to replace them with paper and where's the paper going to come from?"

Plastic bags were not a part of our lives and we lived perfectly well without them. The damage to the environment and our fauna has been duly noted and documented. The encouraging of reusable bags has had a good impact because you do not see plastic bags flying around everywhere. Stores like Bunnings have abandoned them completely. You either bring your own bag, purchase one of their reasonably priced reusable large bags or they offer boxes from their packaging. Everyone has adapted, the store has taken positive action and it is all tickety boo. People need warning if there is to be a deadline and as far as I am concerned we have been working towards getting rid of the bags and yes, we want it, and yes, the government should represent us. No one said the alternative had to be paper but we could look at renewable sources of paper and it might get our recycling act together even better if we offered recycled paper. We have to change. What we have done is damaging so we have been working towards repairing the damage. A ho-hum , it's too hard approach at this stage is rather counter productive. We even used to manage without paper bags. No one left home without their string bag. I love Vanuatu...they have bags made form woven banana leaves. Totally functional and totally biodegradable. Yes, we may well have to look at options. Now, there's a thought!