Editorial: Healthy change worth effort

Katie Holland supports the call by Government leaders for a levy on single-use plastic bags.

For those among us who want to help the environment, but are a bit too lazy, distracted or disorganised to do so, tough love may be the answer.

That's why I support this week's call by local government leaders for a levy on single-use plastic bags.

Yes, I regularly stop packers at the checkout as I see them reaching for a second bag when one would do, but my dislike for unnecessary plastic is yet to extend to carrying a reusable shopping bag with me.

However when there is a small charge for a bag - such as imposed by The Warehouse and Pak'nSave - I stop and think. If I can can carry those three items as far as the car without a bag, that's 10c I don't need to spend and one less bag clogging up the second drawer.

For a year I lived and shopped in Ireland, which introduced the PlasTax plastic-bag levy way back in 2002. It reportedly led to a 90 per cent drop in consumption.

Nobody shelled out for the plastic bags, except in dire emergencies. Everyone had reusable, sturdy shopping bags, which you could buy for around a Euro from the supermarkets.

People quickly learned to keep a couple handy to grab as they headed out the door. Plastic bags became a rare sight, indeed almost socially unacceptable. It didn't take much to change people's habits.

Give us a push, sometimes we need it.

A bid for legislation to ban smoking outside cafes, bars and restaurants is being described as a step too far by some.

In 2004, Steve Chadwick's Private Member's Bill forced smokers outside for a cigarette. An outdoors ban would force them not only outside but down the road or around the corner.

A ban may be an extreme step but if the Government is committed to Smokefree 2025 then extreme measures will be necessary.

If in 10 years' time our children are free from exposure to tobacco and less than 5 per cent of the population are smokers (two of the Smokefree 2025 goals) then it will have been worth it.