Welcome to the world of the shrink-wrapped turnip. Not to mention the shrink wrapped coconut, cucumber and triple packed potato...

If the Government ever brings in a rubbish tax, I shall send my bill on to Marks & Spencer or Morrisons, Currys, Sainsburys - and get them to pay it. Because it's their fault we have so much rubbish in the first place.

Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said recently that they are considering "financial incentives" to encourage householders to recycle more domestic waste, with penalties for those who produce the most rubbish - maybe a charge for extra bin bags to be collected.

Recycling is all very well, but wouldn't it be better to stop producing so much rubbish in the first place?

About 40 per cent of our household waste comes from packaging. We are drowning in a mountain of packaging, in polystyrene, plastic and bubble wrap - much of which isn't even necessary in the first place.

It is, of course, possible to take your string bag to market and have all your fruit and veg put straight in without even a modest little brown paper bag. But when it comes to supermarkets, it's very different.

This is where you will find shrink wrapped coconuts - allegedly to prevent coconuts being accidentally punctured and leaking. If anyone has ever had such an accident with a coconut in their shopping bag, we would love to hear about it.

MARKS & SPENCER are even worse, despite their fine words about recycling. Most supermarkets shrink wrap cucumbers, M&S then seal the halves in yet another bag. Baking potatoes - not known, really, for their fragility - are put in a polystyrene tray, with a lid, as is a great deal of fruit.

All this packaging doesn't even work. SAINSBURY'S Taste the Difference Honey Crunch Apples for instance (£1.99) come in a moulded tray, with a lid, then a cellophane wrap. As we prised open the pack, we could smell that sweet, rotting smell. Because the apples were packed, they had presumably been stacked in piles with all the pressure going in the same place. All four apples were rotten at the core. So much for the wrapping.

Sainsbury's didn't shrink-wrap swedes, only half swedes. Whole swede, naked and unashamed, cost 72p. Half swede, shrink-wrapped costs 60p.

The CO-OP use biodegradable carrier bags and have a lot of information on their website about recycling. However, they too shrink-wrap swedes and wrap aubergines in little bags.

But all the supermarkets use masses of unnecessary wrapping. They do it for three major reasons:

1. Because so much food travels such a long way, it has to be protected for such a journey.

2. To persuade you to buy more. Can you think of any reason really why yoghurts or tins of beans or bottles of cola should be wrapped together in groups of four? Be bloody minded - buy three or five.

3. To grab your attention. This is why we have the Curse of the Cardboard Sleeve. Pasta sauces, ready meals, margarine, dips, meat all come, not just with their tub, tray or packet, but encircled in a cardboard sleeve. Why? The information can easily be printed on the actual package.

Not even the Prince of Wales is innocent on this score. Duchy sausages, for instance, are already wrapped in thick waxy paper, but also have a cardboard sleeve To what purpose? Apart from making more rubbish. Next time Prince Charles pontificates on the environment, think of those over-wrapped sausages.

Then you push your trolley load of packaging to the checkout and they pack it for you in mounds of carrier bags, usually about two items a bag...

GOOD NEWS

DIY stores used to one of the worst packaging offenders, where a dozen nails would be imprisoned in a bubble pack that had to be stabbed open, with risk to life, limb and temper. Although some bubble packs still exist, B&Q sell most of their nails in very simple basic bags with minimal packaging. Also, they have stopped giving out carrier bags but invite you to help yourself from a bin of recycled bags.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

* Shop locally. Food that hasn't travelled so far, doesn't need so much packaging. Market stalls, farmers' markets and box schemes use a fraction of the packaging used by supermarkets.

* Take your own shopping bag.

* Keep use of carrier bags to a minimum and re-use them.

* Recycle. Councils have made it easier, so we could make a bit more effort.

And do your remember, back in the 1970s when we first became environmentally aware, protestors would ostentatiously remove as much of the packaging as they could and leave it at the checkouts for the supermarkets to deal with. If the rubbish tax is introduced, expect to see that again.

PS

Around 20 per cent of the food we buy is discarded. On average, every household throws away more than £400 worth of food a year.

Never mind the packaging. Maybe we're just buying too much in the first place.

We asked the supermarkets why they use so much packaging. This is what Morrions said:

"Morrisons shrink-wrap swedes, peppers, cabbages and coconuts to ensure that they reach the customer in the very best condition. The packaging helps to reduce moisture loss, ensure maximum freshness, limit damage to the vegetable and also allows an information label to be attached to the product. In the case of coconuts, it also prevents leakage if the coconut breaks and stops the hairs getting into other foodstuffs when being transported by the customer.

"We adhere to the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle rule of environmentally responsible packaging.

"We ensure that we use no more packaging material than is necessary to protect and transport products safely to the shelves. To avoid unnecessary waste we have an extensive system of baskets which are reused over and over again between our packing plants and stores.

"We use a range of packaging types and formats that are designed to be efficient throughout a product's entire life cycle. We ensure that both the weight and volume of packaging are minimised whilst maintaining the necessary levels of safety, hygiene and acceptance for the packed product.

Morrisons are working with WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) to support the shared objectives set out in the Courtauld Commitment. These are to deliver absolute reductions in packaging waste by March 2010, identify ways to design-out packaging waste growth by 2008 and tackle the problem of food waste."