I read in the summer edition of Borough News that our council is to distribute large brown wheelie bins for the purpose of collecting compostible garden waste.

The article continues that this will replace the weekly bag collection system with a two-weekly collection from the bins on the grounds that this will mean fewer vehicles on the roads and no further disposal of plastic bags into landfill.

Although the quantity of waste will remain the same - 600,000 bags a year - the number of collections will be halved.

Will the vehicles be bigger or will they make twice as many trips into an area on its designated day? Is this an example of Gordon Brown arithmetic?

The report further tells us that the new bins will cost £29 - for the first year - and that residents will be able to buy back "100% organic compost." Surely not. Buy the bin and have the compost or have the bin and buy the compost. Of course, the cost of this process must be considered and if truly efficient, it will be cheaper next year, but where will these additional taxes stop?

How far are local councils obliged to go in enlisting the help of and finance by the public in carrying out schemes arranged on our behalf with Europe, when those who sign up to them know there is no possibility of achieving them?

I have composted my garden and kitchen waste for nearly 40 years. I separate glass bottles from plastic and take them each week to various collection centres.

I regularly ask the supermarkets when they intend to require manufacturers to provide fully recyclable plastics, or better still, cardboard.

Perhaps our council, instead of following what some others do, would like to be a first for not only introducing a process based on paper and cardboard but in campaigning for the supermarkets and other retailers to cease using plastic for more short-lived materials.

RW Hetherington, Benhams Drive, Horley