How do we turn the tide on plastic pollution?

SAVING the Earth may start in our own backyard (Letters), but it certainly doesn’t end there. China and Southeast Asian countries buy huge quantities of our plastic waste for reprocessing. Countless tons of unwanted waste end up dumped in the sea. Ask your local authority what happens to waste. We shouldn’t be profiting from the sale of it to countries with poor environment policies.

DaviD Bell, ludlow, Shrops. the reporting of pollution by plastic in the oceans, and how it arrives on our shores, seems to infer that it is from riverside walkers and beach picnickers. this is ridiculous. the quantities are far greater. Did any of our local authorities contract to have waste taken away and, if so, where did they think it was going? We need an answer to this, as it rather looks as if it was taken out to sea and just dumped there.

DaviD Finn, Crowborough, e. Sussex.

WE FOLLOW the Americans in nearly everything. Why not follow their example and have paper bags instead of plastic?

DeePaK naYar, new Malden, Surrey. Why not stop using things in plastic containers we don’t actually need? I have ceased using fabric conditioner, with no drastic results to me. Margaret whitworth, aldridge, w. Mids.

I CONSTANTLY clean up my neighbourhood of plastic bottles and tin cans, which passing drivers throw out of their windows. I advocate a surcharge on such items. Us ‘baby boomers’ will remember as children when we collected bottles to return them to shops to be reimbursed two pence per bottle.

roBert ChaPPell, ewell, Surrey. It SeeMS to me that the vast amount of litter thrown around our land could end up in the seas via rivers and streams. this could be solved with strong penalties for dropping plastic litter and cans. Diana evanS, harrogate, n. Yorks.