Country Focus - Sunday 2nd October at 0700; presented by Rachael Garside and repeated Monday 3rd October at 0530

This weekend Wales will become the first country in the UK to introduce a levy on single use carrier bags. Shoppers will now have to pay 5p for every one, whether it's made of plastic, paper or plant-based starch. We used 350 million plastic bags in Wales in 2009 and environmentalists say the new scheme is long overdue, and welcomed, particularly in towns that have been trying to go plastic-free. But it can be an uphill struggle persuading people to break their shopping habits - we're in Haverfordwest where they've been campaigning to go plastic bag free.

Otters are recovering well across the whole of Wales, but how many are there and what are their habits? Advances in the use of DNA technology, pioneered by the Waterford Institute of Technology, are being used to help answer these questions. But before the DNA can be analysed someone has to get their hands dirty - our community reporter Huw Jenkins joins Ceri Morris, project officer for Mammals In a Sustainable Environment, with a group of volunteers collecting otter spraints ( or their faeces if you prefer) on Anglesey.

Can you tell your Egremont Russet from your Cox Orange Pippin? The National Trust has revealed that despite the UK being a nation of apple lovers, the majority of Britons cannot identify home grown varieties. Help is at hand with experts from Erddig where they're holding their 21st apple festival.

And if it's a bumper crop of apples this year, it would also seem to be boom time for spiders. We're joined by Julian Carter from the Biodiversity unit at the National Musuem in Cardiff to discuss oru 8 legged friends.