Sometimes it seems as though you can do nothing right. Just ask one of the UK’s biggest supermarkets, Sainsbury’s, who last week launched a new range of limited edition reusable shopping bags, designed by top fashionista Anya Hindmarch.

The bags were so highly sought after that at some stores people even began queuing to get their hands on one at 3am, but instead of attracting headlines concerning the company’s quest to reduce the huge numbers of plastic bags thrown away by the Great British public each year (a total currently running at a barely conceivable 10bn), the press coverage has instead focused on whether the bags were ethically produced in China.

Sainsbury’s, like those who failed to get their hands on the ‘I’m not a plastic bag’ in the first instance, responded aggressively to the mounting criticism by saying they were “…. outraged by the allegations regarding the Anya Hindmarch 'I'm not a plastic bag'.

A company statement read: “Sainsbury's never claimed the bag was Fairtrade or organic. The point of the bag it can be re-used, thereby saving millions of plastic bags from being used in future years.”

The controversy surrounding the production of the bags, which Sainsbury’s also said were carbon off-set with retiring carbon credits, rumbles on, however, despite the project receiving widespread support from environmentalists.

The £5 bag – which is snip compared to Hyndmarch’s other creations which can cost up to and over £1000 – was produced in collaboration with a non-profit campaign group, We Are What We Do. And even if the health of the planet was not at the forefront of the minds of those people who queued to get their hands on one of 2007’s ‘must-have’ items, a leading marketing figure believes they have achieved their aim.

“So what if people buy it because it’s a fashion statement,” Chris Arnold, creative partner at ethical marketing company Feel, told BBC online. “If the person who uses the bag is shallow and driven by fashion, it still helps the planet because they haven’t used a plastic one.”

Following the recent purge on the ‘throwaway culture’ surrounding plastic bags, all the bags now provided to customers in Sainsbury’s supermarkets are made from recycled material and are designed to be used again and again.

Although sadly, when I myself visited the supermarket the day after the £5 Hyndmarsh giveaway, the number of people magically producing plastic bags from their pockets at the check-outs appeared to be minimal, suggesting that Sainsbury’s, and the humble plastic bag still have a way to travel.