The government's putting just over $1 million into a recycling plan that will target soft plastics.

So we're talking about supermarket shopping bags, bread bags and food wraps – that sort of thing, because at the moment, we can’t recycle those plastics in this country.

The idea is that instead of sending thousands of tonnes of plastics to the rubbish dump and landfills each year, we’ll take our bags and our soft plastics along to a number of stores and we'll put them in bins.

It's going to be trialed at New Worlds, The Warehouse and Pak’n’Saves in Auckland in September, and then rolled out to Countdown stores as well.

It's to be applauded, for sure, but imposing a levy on plastic bags would have been a much smarter idea -- if you want to change a habit, make people pay for it, and you'll see an immediate reduction in our use of soft plastics

Nick Smith, the environment minister, says a levy is no use because it won’t take into account bread bags and food wrap, etc – but single use supermarket bags are the biggest issue, so his argument falls short.

The quickest and most effective way of reducing our reliance on soft plastics is to slap a 10 or 20 cent levy on supermarket bags, and then watch as people arrive for their weekly shop with their own bags.

I think a small percentage of the population will take the time to store their soft plastics, bundle them up, and take them to a recycling point but most, i think, will continue to bung them in the rubbish bin at home. It's too hard. It requires the consumer to think, and to act -- whereas the levy is a deterrent. Surely a deterrent is the best option.

Local government has taken the same position -- pushing for a levy. Members voted this weekend strongly in favour of a levy, urging the government to continue with the soft plastics recycling plan but to impose a levy as well.

Some countries have already imposed levies -- Denmark, China, Ireland and the UK - and the levy has triggered a reduction in the use of single-use bags. In England, some eight billion bags were being used every year, and they take around 1000 years to disintegrate, so you do the maths. What a mess. They've imposed a 10 cent levy there, and it's working.

Recycling facilities are all well and good, but you've got to get people to use them. You've got to motivate people to recycle -- and so i agree with local government on this. Lets slap a levy on single-use plastic bags. If the government's serious about reducing our use of soft plastics, it's the best option.