Edel Coffey: Sustainability is about planning - as Roy Keane said: fail to prepare, prepare to fail

"...this is how the bag for life wins. It knows our vulnerabilities. It knows that when we go in for some bread and a litre of milk, we come out with nine other items that we forgot we needed..."

A bag for life, yesterday. Pic: PA

Last week, after years of living with an invasive species in my home, I decided it was time to tackle the problem with urgent and brutal action, cut it out at the root. I realised I had been living with the slow colonisation of my life for so long that it had started to feel normal, even though every room in my house showed signs of infection. It was time to eradicate my Bag For Life problem.

How many do you own? I can’t be the only sustainability monster with this problem, can I? Open any cupboard in my house and a handful of the things will spring forth like a ghoulish clown’s head on a spring.