Dear Sir,

Hot on the heels of the article in yesterday’s paper, “Addiction to single-use plastic has got to stop” (RG, June 8), I applaud Jo Ruxton’s attempt to bring this situation to the fore. There is a lot we as a community can do to ameliorate this appalling dilemma.

I am constantly shocked at the amount of plastic bags freely doled out by some of our major supermarkets. And do we really need to double-bag items? Did you know that there is paper available for wrapping your items at the butcher’s counter in Lindo’s, if you ask for it?

I’m suggesting there should be no choice; no styrofoam plates to put your meat and fish on and no plastic wrap over the top. There are, or were, net bags available for sale to bag loose items such as fruits and veg. No need for the plastic bags.

The blue carrier bags ... ugh. I would like to suggest that supermarkets do away with these and instead supplement the cost of reusable fabric shopping bags. Or perhaps they could arrange sponsorship and have reusable bags available free of charge for a limited time, or every so often. Not everyone is able or willing to shell out the money to buy half a dozen bags when they can get free plastic ones.

The subject of shopping bags has been considered before. Why has there been little to no action? Taxing plastic bags certainly is not the way to go in the present economic climate but we must come up with an alternative. Did you know that old T-shirts can be easily converted into shopping bags? No sewing required.

Shopping in Hamilton: little, if any, thought is given to doling out plastic bag upon plastic bag for purchases, every single day. Get into the habit of carrying a cloth bag with you. Refuse the plastic bags.

And garbage bags. Hundreds of them on the roadside to be collected every week. Why not buy a plastic garbage bin that can be hosed out and reused time and again? If you can afford to buy plastic garbage bags, you can afford a garbage bin with money to spare.

We must stop this mindless use of plastic. Jo Ruxton said it best on Wednesday: “You can’t throw something away, because there is no ‘away’.”

JOY NASH