Maybe the supermarkets are past their sell by dates! thunders Mrs. M. I've never met anyone who wanted a cucumber wrapped in plastic. Yet the supermarkets claim it's the customer who wants all this packing. Rubbish!

Trying to get the thin plastic skin off a cucumber drives me crazy. A knife won't work, you have to use scissors, then skin it off like you were skinning a rabbit. Why can't the supermarkets get it through their heads that we don't like silly packing? The number of times I've tried to get a toothbrush out of the wrapper, or a battery out of its plastic cover, or a chocolate Easter egg open from its' ridiculous box is endless and exasperating. Thank God the House of Lords is telling the government to aim their efforts at the supermarkets, who are responsible for the vast majority of waste, not the consumer. Also, their trick of putting produce out on the shelves just before the sell by date, so we'll have to throw it away quickly, is diabolical.

We consumers are now the victims of rubbish bin fines. We have to wade our way throw complex rules about our bins. No wonder there is public anger. The Lords say we are responsible for only 10% of the waste. Wasteful packing is the culprit. Cereals and pizzas are packed in boxes that are too large, and sometimes double packed. Why does our dishwasher tablet need to be triple-packed in plastic, ditto our washing powder tablets? Fruits packed individually in plastic trays and milk and juice cartons are also to blame. Does all this packaging justify a higher price? I hear there's a shop in Islington called Unpackaged, where nothing comes packed in plastic. Bravo!

As one local authority put it, ´The days of the cling film coconut must come to an end.'

Rubbish, rubbish, that's what it truly is!