The litter menace of party balloons
THE damage done to the environment by waste plastic is rightly getting attention. The fire danger posed by Chinese lanterns — paper balloons powered by a lighted fuel cell — are also well known and many councils have banned them. What is less well known is the littering and danger posed to animals by helium balloons. When I checked on my herd of Limousin heifers, I was horrified to see one of them chewing a helium balloon. If you wish to celebrate an occasion, please find another way to do it than releasing these balloons.
Name and address supplied. I WELCOME the Mail’s Great Plastic Pick Up. Local army and police cadets took part in a recent litter pick along the River Biss in Trowbridge and collected 26 bags of rubbish and two shopping trollies. I take my hat off to these young people for giving their time. It’s a shame that more adults couldn’t be bothered to join them.
Cllr G. K. WHIFFEN, Trowbridge, Wilts. DON’T fine the litterbugs; sentence them to a day picking up litter.
DOUG ELLIOT, Ormskirk, Lancs. I AGREE that the amount of litter is disgusting along the roadside from Dover to Canterbury (Letters) — the gateway to our country. I have written to councils to voice my concern, only to be told ‘it’s not our job’ and ‘it is not safe to pick up the litter because the traffic travels too fast’.
DAVID DODMAN, Canterbury, Kent. DRIVING from Surrey to Ayr in Scotland, I couldn’t believe the constant stream of litter along the motorways. I went for a walk along the Ayrshire coast, a place of great natural beauty — until you approach the waterline and the heaps of ghastly garbage. Back home, I drove along a country lane and within a few hundred yards there was a bag of rubbish and then the fly-tipper’s signature — a mattress. I fear we’ve become blind to rubbish. We are assailed on all sides by a relentless enemy — pollution. How long before we are overwhelmed?
GREG ALEXANDER, Reigate, Surrey.