The sorry state of Britain’s motorways shines a light on our litter crisis
SIR – A golden opportunity exists for an environment minister to make a name for himself as the person who cleaned up the highways of England.
As one who regularly travels between Wellington in Somerset and Tewkesbury up the M5, I can testify to their disgusting state. The slip roads to and from the motorway are invariably so densely littered that they look like a corner of the county tip.
This mess is not just rubbish ejected from passing cars: it comes from numerous sources, including uncovered skip lorries on their way to tips. Whatever must visiting foreigners think of the British? Max Leins
Wellington, Somerset
SIR – I recently made the two-hour journey from Hurghada in Egypt to Marsa Alam along the coast of the Red Sea. For virtually the entire journey the roadside was strewn with thousands of plastic bottles and plastic bags – all within 100 yards of the sea.
There is very little point in our cleaning up our own plastic waste (report, March 9) if other countries continue to treat the natural world in this way. Janet Milliken
Folkestone, Kent
SIR – It is a good idea for coffee chains to offer discounts to those customers who bring their own cups and mugs (leading article, March 9).
If we can do that to avoid a plastic coffee cup, then something along the same lines might be considered to tackle the waste generated by fish and chips and other takeaway meals.
One solution might be to step back in time to the Fifties and Sixties, when people took their own bowls – along with napkins – to the chippy. Joe Dawson
Withnell, Lancashire
SIR – Over 30 years ago, a Belgian subsidiary of Tate & Lyle produced a biodegradable product from beet sugar waste, the purpose of which was to be a substitute for plastic. As an experimental product, it was not widely produced or marketed.
The company which manufactured it has long ceased to be in the Tate & Lyle group, but the science is still extant somewhere. This would seem to be the right time for its resurrection. Nigel Milliner
Ruan Highlanes, Cornwall
SIR – I have been lucky enough to receive a Mother’s Day gift via Marks & Spencer. It consisted of a cardboard box containing, among other things, a bunch of flowers.
The flowers proudly bore a card boasting of an “innovative, water-free delivery solution [which] aims to save precious resources while ensuring your flowers still arrive in perfect condition”. The bunch was wrapped in several layers of cellophane and paper, inside a plastic bag large enough to contain a full-length coat.
Have the powers that be at Marks & Spencer heard about plastic pollution? Sally Hordern
Exbourne, Devon