The current hot topic here on Airstrip One seems to be plastic bags. Much as I hate to find myself agreeing with the Daily Hate Mail, they really should go. What I can’t understand is why everyone seems to dismiss paper bags out of hand.
The main complaint seems to be that they disintegrate in the rain. That simply isn’t true, as anyone who had ventured further than the channel and dared learn something of the bizzare alien culture they find themselves in will know. Those not so brave need to think it through a little. Milk cartons are made of cardboard, yet do not seem to disintegrate. Amazingly, paper can be treated, or simply made thick enough not to instantly turn into papier mache when damp.
As usual, the solution to the problem is not to simple do the obvious thing and give out free paper bags, but to turn it in to a money making scheme and charge for the plastic ones. Turn a small loss on free bags into a profit on then and still put hundreds of millions of bags in the ground every year. Only in Britain.