The government should say what direction the country should take on plastic bags, Opposition environment spokesman Leo Brincat said this morning.

He pointed out that no one knew the volume of waste such bags were generating.

So how credible could fiscal incentives be when the government was not capable of collecting the basic and necessary information with the aim of monitoring this material in the waste stream?

Mr Brincat observed that while an eco-contribution on plastic bags was introduced for the first time some years ago but although this was aimed at reducing their use, it failed completely.

Now new measures were being introduced, as announced in the last budget, bringing about a considerable increase in the eco-contribution. It seemed that this was done without the right considerations to promote biodegradable bags, Mr Brincat said.

He said that a tax system which differentiated between the different types of plastic bags and gradually phased out conventional ones should be promoted.