Recycling

In this financial year alone, council landfill tax charges are predicted to rise by 33 per cent. The Local Government Association (LGA) estimates councils may face fines of up to £150 per tonne of household rubbish sent to landfill sites over set quotas.

Landfill tax paid by Middlesbrough, Stockton and Redcar and Cleveland councils has already just increased by a third, from £24 per tonne to £32 per tonne by 2008.

We, the consumers, will ultimately pick up these costs

The LGA believes local citizens will end up paying £4.8bn over the next six years for bin collections, unless more is done to cut massive retailer packaging.

I urge all councils to write to Gordon Brown asking the Government to refund the extra fines it intends to impose back to local authorities to fund quality local recycling schemes.

If nothing changes to reduce the waste we produce, including packaging, we will see the dreaded fortnightly collection of household rubbish while paying more for an inferior service.

Councillor Ken Walker, Independent, Gresham Ward, Middlesbrough.

NOT a day goes by without a gullible media outlet banging on about the environment, especially the BBC.

Recent ideas given airtime include separate collections for each day of the week - tins and cans Monday, bottles Tuesday, papers Wednesday, plastics Thursday, food slops Friday - but not a thought is offered by the advocates about all the wagons doing the collections and pumping out fumes.

Also, they advocate cloth nappies with safety pins, and not the disposable type, while completely ignoring that these need to be washed overnight in an electric washing machine and dried on a heated radiator for next day use.

Never are these zealots taken to task by their interviewer.

To ensure your compliance they will put Big Brother TV cameras in your bins, and then get out of their council/company-provided cars to dish out on-the-spot fines for noncompliance.

Given the apathy to stand up to these dictators they will get these proposals pushed through. Surely, in a democracy, prudent home management should be emphasised, but as usual the extremists will get their way.

It doesn't matter where you go, the speed cameras, CCTV security cameras, or environment cameras will soon be watching our every move.

Mark Anderson, Middleton St George, near Darlington.