First, we recycle any plastics that come into our home. Second, all the cotton/paper/biodegradable shopping bags were in Mrs D's car and, at the time, we were in my car.
Not good enough, I know but I just wanted to mention it in the hope that I might get let off with just a warning.
I'm certainly one who should know better particularly after a couple of plastic memories from my travels. In Morocco the favoured plastic carry bags are black. Like tumbleweeds, all the discarded ones roll across the landscape getting caught up on prickly bushes to create bushes bearing black plastic bag "fruit".
The Moroccans' attitude to rubbish is rather different from ours though and nowhere was this exemplified more than in another image which remains firmly in my mind.
A policeman was standing in the middle of the road directing traffic but in his down moments he was enjoying a fresh orange, the peel of which he was simply dropping on the road beneath him.
At the end of his shift, he would have enjoyed a nice mint tea while the orange peel rotted on the bitumen beneath the blistering sun.
The other plastic memory comes from the crystal clear waters of one of the outer islands of Fiji - think palm trees, golden sand and turquoise waters. I was doing some underwater swimming to examine the tropical marine life and perhaps even find treasure.
My strongest memory from that submarine foray was plastic: plastic bags, plastic water bottles and plastic six-pack holders!
All swaying gently in the warm tropical current. On land, the locals were probably enjoying kava.
Yet, here was I in my own home town using plastic bags in the supermarket! I deserved to be caught.
Ireland has led by example in this area.
Over a decade ago they introduced a tax on plastic bags and within weeks there was a 94 per cent drop in plastic bag use. Job well done so they went and had a Guinness or two.
In 2011 California tried the more draconian measure of an outright ban. That led to a plastic litter reduction of "approximately 89 per cent in the storm drain system, 60 per cent in creeks and rivers and 59 per cent in city and suburban streets". So they went and had a chardonnay.
But here's a disturbing statistic from online publication EcoWatch.
"Plastic in the ocean breaks down into such small segments that pieces of plastic from a single one-litre bottle could end up on every mile of beach throughout the world".
Clearly, there's still plenty of anti-plastic bag work for us to do and I for one will try not to slip up again.
There! I think I've done my penance. Perhaps I've even earned a Guinness or a chardonnay though I'm happy just to settle for an ice-cold beer.
- Wyn Drabble is a teacher of English, a writer, musician and public speaker.
