Bags again.

I consider myself a reasonably tolerant man, but I get more and more incensed these days at the way we are fed what at best can be described as misleading information, and at worst, downright lies. I've talked about plastic bags before, and they're in the news again - it seems it will only be a matter of time before shops and supermarkets are legally bound to charge us for them. For a start, this strikes me as sexist - men are going to be hit harder than women, because men do not carry bags around with them as a matter of course in the way that many women do. But the main point is this myth that is propagated as justification for such a charge - that plastic bags have to go into landfill because they cannot be recycled. Read my lips - yes they can!! Plastic bags ARE recyclable. So rather than a knee-jerk charge for them, the question which should be being asked is - why aren't they being recycled? And I imagine the answer would be - money. Most local authorities would say that recycling plastic bags is not economically viable. And if that is in fact the case. then let's have a discussion based on that - why is it uneconomic, could it be made economic, and if not, should the cost involved be borne by us all through central or local taxation, or solely by those who use the bags. But at least let's discuss the matter based on fact, not untruths.