AN aspect of the recycling issue which needs addressing by shopkeepers and customers alike is to charge for each plastic carrier bag.

When I bought a newspaper in town I was asked if I wanted a carrier bag to put it in! Sometimes your goods are given to you in plastic bags before you have chance to say you have your own.

Better still, re-introduce the paper carrier bags, which are reusable and can be recycled when thrown away. If we were charged for these bags -- as, I believe, one of the large stores is already doing -- there would not be as many discarded and hanging from the branches of trees. Again, the back streets are littered with them. What a waste and disgrace.

MAUREEN W ARNFIELD, Whalley Road, Clayton-le-Moors.