I AM a conscientious recycler of rubbish, or rather my husband is.

We save newspapers, magazines, aluminium cans and foil. Vegetable peelings go into our composter or are fed to the worms in our wormery, and we use water butts. In other words we try to do our bit for the environment.

On September 5, I put out two dustbins, one given to us by the council, the other "rescued" from woods near us. Unfortunately only one bin was emptied.

It is rare that I put out two bins but we had been tidying up the yard and had some extra rubbish which, had it been larger, we would have taken to Fernhill Yard. We do not throw it on any spare land, like many people do.

Being rather annoyed, I rang the council and asked why only one bin had been emptied. I was asked if I had permission to have two bins and where had I got the other bin from and had I read the leaflet relating to wheelie bins. Was I hearing correctly. Do we really need instructions on how to use a dustbin. Do we pay £75 a month Council Tax to be allowed to have only one bin emptied. Boxes left out by another resident were also ignored and rubbish dropped by the bin men was abandoned and is still there as I write this letter.

I realise that being a refuse collector is an unpleasant occupation, but I always wrap my rubbish in paper or put it in plastic bags, before putting it in the bin. I used to work with elderly people and, believe me, some of the jobs I did for them were not very nice. But those jobs needed to be done by someone.

Isn't it time we took some pride in our town and encouraged people to be clean and tidy. Perhaps we could have a little leeway from the council as regards the emptying of bins and a little more give and take on all sides.

ELIZABETH WILSON,

Chesham Road, Bury.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.