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Monday 7 July 2008, 6.30pm

In one corner is Basil Tucker - managing director of Cardinal Packaging in Ebbw Vale. His high-tech factory is capable of producing 5 hundred thousand shopping bags a day.

They're high end products for high street names - not the kind you'll pick up in the local supermarket or convenience store. But he's still feeling the effect of a growing backlash against the plastic carrier bag. As orders fall he's had to lay off staff. Workers and business alike - he feels - are victims of the unfair demonisation of the plastic bag.

"The humble carrier bag is an excellent piece of material. It does a wonderful job. In the hands of the wrong people they can become an environmental nuisance - but so can so many other things. Where people act responsibly they shouldn't be a nuisance it can be a very great aid to modern day living."

In the other corner is Tegryn Jones - chief executive of Keep Wales Tidy. He wants to see a levy imposed on plastic carriers bags, similar to the one brought in by the Republic of Ireland six years ago.

The Irish initiative was designed to tackle the problem of litter and has seen the number of bags issued every year plunge from 328 per person to just 21. Tegryn Jones believes similar action here in Wales would encourage people to find greener alternatives to 600 million plastic bags issued here every year.

"Plastic bags appear to be a plague on our environment. Where ever you go across Wales you see plastic bags. They're on the side of rivers, stuck in trees or just blowing in the wind. They are unnecessary. People don't need to throw plastic bags about the place; there are many viable alternatives."