THE Evening Press carried features and an editorial on the urgent need for the recycling of household waste (June 20).

There are millions of people working eight hours a day to create the junk churned out by the packaging industry; we can't hope to solve the problem with a few voluntary recycling schemes no matter how energetically pursued and praiseworthy these may be.

There is, however, a simple solution within the grasp of even the spineless hypocrites at Westminster: legislation that outlaws the production of all packaging (or even all products) that will not decompose naturally or cannot be returned (for a prepaid deposit) to the manufacturer for re-use or re-cycling. This would effectively halt the madness of plastic and glass wrappings on every tiny purchase and dramatically reduce the junk mail/products that are being crammed through every letterbox in the country.

R Westmoreland,

The Oval, Pocklington.

Updated: 10:09 Saturday, June 30, 2001