South Pembrokeshire AM Angela Burns is getting behind proposals to charge for all plastic carrier bags used in Wales.

Mrs. Burns, who has just been appointed Shadow Environment Minister, is wholeheartedly supporting the new law which is being consulted upon this summer.

"Starting to charge for plastic bags is one of the most simple and effective ways of vastly reducing the amount of waste we produce in Wales every year," said Mrs. Burns.

"When they introduced the levy in Ireland there was a 90 per cent drop in the use of carrier bags."

She is supporting towns such as Narberth, Tenby and Pembroke who have designed their own reusable shopping bags.

"Once you get used to remembering to take your bag with you, then you soon realise how unnecessary all those plastic bags are.

"On average, people use 300 bags a year for just 12 minutes.  They then take decades to break down in landfill."

The new legislation to introduce a fee followed a suggestion by a Carmarthenshire County Council officer who won a BBC Wales competition called 'If I Ruled Wales'. His suggestion to ban plastic bags won the contest by public vote.

"The Assembly has got a target to halve the amount of bags handed out by May, but even if that is met it will still mean 250 million bags are being given out every year, which I think is too many," added Mrs. Burns.

"It's only by charging that we will get people out of the habit of unnecessarily using plastic bags."