It strikes me that the whole airport shopping system is very environmentally unfriendly and should be rethought — ideally even legislated against. I don’t mean banned entirely, but there should be some legislation to prevent people from buying bottles of gin or vodka in duty-free, then putting them on a plane and flying them halfway round the world to another airport that sells the same items.

I haven’t had the time to sit down and work it out, but I would imagine that the amount of carbon produced by flying these items around the world is not insignificant. Yet it’s a totally unnecessary exercise, as practically every airport sells the same stuff.

I recommend that all airport shopping be moved to the arrivals area. That way, all this waste would be stopped immediately — without anyone losing out in any real way.