Plastic is very annoying environmentally as it is wrong in almost all respects. It's not natural, the raw materials are normally carbon and hydrogen (oil), it doesn't rot, and it is very light and takes up a lot of space for its weight.

It can't be grown and it makes excellent litter. Indeed plastic uses eight per cent of the world's oil production, half as a raw material and the rest to make it. And finally it takes up ten per cent of the contents of our waste bins, and even more of the landfill sites.

There is little incentive to recycle as targets are weight based, which is why glass and paper are preferred, and a tonne of plastic takes up too much room in collection wagons. One tonne is 20,000 pop bottles or 120,000 carrier bags!

It also comes in many different forms and separating them is difficult and costly as there isn't a magnet' for sorting them out. They can't be mixed to make new products so it is cheaper to start from scratch with the raw materials.

The six main types of plastic are shown on bottles and trays by numbers 1 to 6 inside a triangle. The UK only has large recycling facilities for bottles numbered 1 (PET: fizzy drinks), 2 (HDPE: milk and washing up liquids), and 3 (PVC: squash, water and shampoo).

Egg boxes, yoghurt pots, plastic cups and margarine tubs are numbers 5 and 6 and there is little provision for recycling.

Some countries burn plastic in energy-from-waste plants as it has a high calorific value and this partly reduces the amount of CO2 produced as it replaces a fossil fuel.

However this is second best as it means households are not encouraged to reduce and sort their waste and there can be emission and planning problems.

With plastic use increasing at four per cent a year the waste will double in a decade and there is a limit to the number of bins, garden furniture, fencing and car bumpers that can be made from recycled plastic as it doesn't wear out. Unfortunately it only takes 252 bottles to make a fleece and we will do well to recycle a third of all the packaging. We need less of it.

If we don't want the rest to go to China then we should press for food trays made of papier mache that can be composted, milk in glass bottles that can be refilled, yoghurts in paper pots, like M&S, and above all a returnable deposit on all plastic drinks bottles.

It works a treat in Sweden and South Australia, and in Norway 93 per cent of the bottles are returned for recycling and refilling.

There is a glimmer of hope with the development and trial of cardboard milk bottles but as the government won't legislate on plastic bags we should all leave a note at supermarket customer services supporting a 10p charge per bag.