Waste not, want not

Dear Spurtle  

Am I being unduly cynical at the support from retailers for compulsory plastic bag charging? Apart from the few companies who claim to donate this income to charity, the rest will be laughing their way to the bank! 

More to the point would be allow customers to use the empty cardboard boxes in which products have been delivered to the shop. My local supermarket used to have piles of these freely available at the checkout and plastic bag use was minimal as a result. Nowadays, these have to be disposed of by retailers at vast cost – surely far better for them to be taken home and disposed of by customers as domestic waste at no cost to traders?

John Hein