Flush with failure

Notwithstanding the crass stupidity and level of difficulty in flushing any buoyant cotton bud (paper or plastic) down the loo, why are they allegedly accumulating on Gullane beach?

Is this localised or occurring throughout Scotland and the rest of the UK? Don’t sewerage treatment plants have filters and filter beds to remove nonbiodegradable flushed items? What other “raw” sewerage material is being dumped into the River Forth or elsewhere?

A cynic might conclude that this Green-snp Holyrood “news story” was timed to coincide with the PM’S announcement of her 25-year environmental plan.

As with carbon emissions, whatever restrictive and expensive draconian measures tiny Scotland, or even the whole of the UK, applies to mitigate such problems, we represent a tiny drop in the (plastic) bucket compared to the immense global pollution attributable to China, India and, in the case of sea plastic, Bangladesh. Are they ever likely to follow our self-inflicted lead?

MICHAEL WILSON Craigmyle Park, Galashiels