Such a scheme is a great idea and well overdue. Victoria also needs to ban limited use plastic bags.

Australians use billions such bags every year which take hundreds of years to break down.

Because they aren’t biodegradable they never fully go away. Across the world more and more cities and nations are introducing bans on plastic bags.

In Rwanda it is illegal to bring plastic bags into the country and the streets are some of the cleanest in the world.

Up until the 1950s Australian households shopped and thrived without plastic bags.

Eliminating limited-use plastic bags requires negligible infrastructure and will save on local and state government clean-up costs.

South Australia, Tasmania, ACT and the Northern Territory have introduced bans on the distribution of single-use lightweight plastic bags at retail points of sale.

It's time for Victoria to catch up. Plastic Bag Free Victoria is on a mission to achieve this, but to raise the issue with the state government they need a petition with 10,000 signatures.

If you’re willing to share the petition at your workplace, business, cafe or club we urge you to do so as soon as possible. Petitions can be downloaded at our website: www.plasticbagfreevictoria.org.

If you decide to proceed, please notify the North East Regional Sustainability Alliance by emailing lizette@salmonfamily.id.au

WHEN there is hunger and thirst there is Carevan. When there is loneliness coupled with depression, there is Carevan. 

"There's people who fall through the cracks in society and they really need help," Dr John Brabant, founder of the Carevan Foundation said to The Border Mail. (January 13, 2016). 

Volunteers, donations and big corporate sponsorship are needed urgently to keep Carevan Foundation alive. 

WHAT started out as a promising critique of why Australians engage in “cultural cringe” disappointingly turned into yet another tired and unwelcome piece on how Indigenous people should get over their histories in Australia. (The Border Mail, Saturday, January 30, 2016)

Despite acknowledging Australian can do more to support and recognise the atrocities that have been committed since 1788 against Indigenous people, Mick McGlone seems to think he is the best placed position to determine what should and shouldn't be classed as structural racism.

Indigenous Australians are 3 per cent of our population yet over 28 per cent of our prison population. They die 10 years younger, they are brutalised by police, their children are still taken from them and they remain victims of a structural racism that means an Indigenous child is more likely to go to prison than finish school.

Racism is not just verbal abuse, prejudice from another group of people. It is institutionalised discrimination and that is unknowingly perpetuated every single day, often in small ways we cannot see or quantify. 

The Border Mail is pleased to announce it will run a weekly Letter of the Week competition - the lucky winner receives a double pass from Regent Cinemas Albury to watch a movie of their choice. Please email submissions to letters@bordermail.com.au. Winners will be announced in Saturday’s Letters to the editor section.