YOU’VE got to wonder about the ultimate destination of the stuff we put out once a fortnight for recycling. Were we assured it is, indeed, effectively recycled, thereby saving the environment and the earth’s resources, we’d all be only too happy to do what officials tell us with our rubbish.

But is it? Information is actually hard to come by. Local authorities seem curiously reticent on the subject. Also, there were worrying claims in a reputable Sunday newspaper last year that the whole lot is, in fact, shipped to China, there to be dumped, and the Chinese, of course, get paid for taking it.

Whatever the truth of that, at our level the whole thing has got out of hand, with us now having at least three receptacles to sort our rubbish into – and you’ve got to wonder how much of our money is being wasted, too.

Tony Kelly, Crook, Co Durham.