Positive ways to reduce packaging

From: John G Davies, Alma Terrace, East Morton, Keighley.

FATHER Neil McNicholas’s observations regarding litter can be further extended to the problem of “dumping” (The Yorkshire Post, July 8).

Part of the problem lies with the packaging industry, it seems as if everything has to be double and treble wrapped to make it more attractive to the consumer.

This even applies to medication. My bins are full of cardboard boxes, leaflets and strips of bubble wrap.

Yes, the packaging industry provides work for a lot of people, but at what environmental cost? Bringing back the refillable pill bottle and the paper bag for a quarter of pear drops would hardly be a retrograde step.

The second part of the problem resides in human nature and the current culture of disposability. “Once you’ve finished with it, throw it away”.

Rather than adopting a punitive approach with all its negative consequences, I would look for a more positive solution. The charge on carrier bags has been successful and should be extended wherever possible to similar items.

A system of rewards would encourage people to recycle more. Every container or wrapper should have a real recycle value, so when people returned them to the retailer or to a recycler they would be credited with a number of points that could be spent later.

The same approach could be applied to other items, say one point for a recycled battery, 50 for a vacuum cleaner and 100 for a television. The points would have to reflect the real recycling value.

As well as reducing litter and dumping, this might even provide work for the unemployed packaging workers.

From: Steve Wilson, Lenton Villas, Idle, Bradford.

NEIL McNicholas writes about an issue all decent people now contend with – litter.

A lack of common courtesy, of respect for other people and their surroundings, plus an ugly entitlement aspect, all characterise these morons.

And I am not surprised because this was embedded decades ago and the current perpetrators are now breeding the next wave. Until you teach kids the basics of life, it will continue.

To be effective the message will need repeating time and again because, on the evidence out there, a lot of kids are not getting these values instilled at home.