AN ENVIRONMENTALLY friendly businessman says a council carrier bag scheme is immoral and hypocritical.

Jonathan Whiter, director of a Dorchester business, feels Dorset County Council is going against its environmental ideals by giving out thousands of plastic carrier bags from the county's libraries.

The council has a deal with a marketing company that sells advertising space on the plastic bags and provides Dorset's libraries with 50,000 each year.

Mr Whiter, 41, of Balmoral Crescent said: "I have really supported what the council is doing in terms of its recycling scheme but I know that plastics don't break down for 1,000 years or more.

"It just doesn't fit in with them saying they are green and encouraging people to cut down on waste.

"They are using one of the most damaging products there is."

The scheme started in 2000 and has already seen 250,000 plastic bags distributed.

Dorset County Council says the bags are made from recycled plastic and carry a statement saying: 'Help the environment, please re-use this carrier'.

Father-of-two Mr Whiter said: "Lots of commercial businesses put that on their carrier bags but you still see them floating around the street and ending up in landfill.

"There will be some responsible individuals who use carrier bags to death and then recycle them but the majority of those bags will end up back in landfill sites.

"They are very thick, heavy-duty plastic and who knows how long it will take for them to degrade?

"If the council was serious it would use biodegradable carrier bags, but it is obviously looking for the cheapest deal.

"I can't see the point because most people in the library would put the books in their own bags anyway."

Senior library manager for Dorset County Council Tracy Long said: "Many library users do re-use the bags on other library visits.

"The benefit for the library service is that we are given advertising space on the carrier bags to promote the library service and have a supply of free carrier bags to distribute to the public."

The contract will be reviewed in October 2009.