Widespread use of plastic

Like other households in Malta, I received a flyer produced by WasteServ Malta Ltd with the title Let's Kill Plastic Before It Gets Us!

The flyer carries a picture of what I take to be plastic bags used by supermarkets. It also lists the exemptions allowed by law in the manufacturing sector and highlights the fact that the eco contribution on plastic bags "will not affect the agriculture sector and farmers who operate from glass houses or use plastic covers to cover their produce".

Incidentally, the day I received the flyer, I went shopping in one of the leading supermarkets in Malta. In three shopping plastic bags I had the following items which contained plastic: fresh eggs, three packets of sliced bread, packaging made out of plastic from the delicatessen counter, packaging made out of plastic from the meat counter, packaging made out of plastic from the vegetable counter, frozen chicken packaging, smoked salmon packaging, six plastic mineral water bottles shrink-packed made out of plastic, toilet paper packed in plastic packaging, four plastic detergent bottles and much more. The ratio items carried in these plastic carrier bags is 4:1. So why is it only plastic carrier bags used at supermarkets that is "getting at us"?

I beg to ask the following questions: Doesn't plastic used by farmers "get us"? Doesn't plastic packaging from chicken, bread, mineral water bottles etc "get us"? Don't detergent plastic bottles and plastic mineral water bottles "get us"?

And, further, why discriminate against plastic carrier bags used by supermarkets when in reality plastic carrier bags are a small fraction of other plastic being used on a daily basis? No reference, for example, is made to the plastic bags currently being used by the great majority of other commercial outlets?

And since the government is encouraging the public to use alternative materials to plastic carrier bags, why isn't the same offer being made to substitute the use of mineral water plastic bottles with glass bottles. I believe there has been no campaign on the use of mineral water plastic bottles similar to the present campaign for plastic carrier bags.

In conclusion, I am tempted to further ask: What is the aim of the flyer? To really safeguard people's health from plastic or to educate the public on what the government is cashing in from the recently introduced eco contribution. The public deserves an answer.