The controversy over using free plastic shopping bags is deflecting attention from more urgent environmental issues, according to the co-founder of one of Britain’s leading online retailers.

Jason Gissing, co-founder and chief financial officer of Ocado, the grocery delivery company, said: “There’s a strong case that we should stop worrying about plastic bags and start focusing on where our electricity generation comes from in this country. We should have a nuclear debate rather than worrying about whether a retailer is charging 5p or 10p for a plastic bag.”

He said that the argument over charging for the bags was important because it showed that individual consumers can make a difference, but pointed to other issues that he believed also warranted attention.

He said: “There are certain things that I believe the Government should do, whether it's around the subsidies of farming, whether it's around the source of our electricity in this country…[or] waste disposal.”

The row over plastic bags erupted earlier this year when Marks & Spencer’s decision to charge customers 5p for each bag was followed by a pledge from the Prime Minister to make retailers charge for carriers, and a promise to back up this stance by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, in the Budget.

Speaking in an interview for The Green Rush, a new series on business and the environment launched yesterday on Times Online, Mr Gissing was also sceptical of businesses that talked up their green credentials.

“Every single large business has jumped on this green bandwagon. I think consumers are right to be cynical because actually I think a lot of it is complete rubbish,” he said. “There might be a handful of individuals in these companies that care about the environment or the effect but, by and large, businesses are in the business of making money and they don’t really care about the costs and consequences of that.”

He conceded that the same charge could be levelled against Ocado, which, as an online-only operation, with its fleet of brightly coloured delivery vans, its closely-guarded list of celebrity shoppers, and its environmental and organic pledges, is a brand of the moment. But he said the company was trying to stress its differences from other retail players.

Mr Gissing said he would be “saddened greatly” if consumers decide they cannot afford to consider the environmental impact of their purchases as the economic downturn continues to squeeze household budgets.

“I think you have to be sanguine and just say, look, if there are things [environmental initiatives] that get sacrificed, they clearly weren't being done very well in the first place”, he said.

He added: “That's again going back to a government responsibility, to look at some of this stuff and say, 'we have to make sure that there are proper incentives in place to focus people on the most important things.'”