I READ Sundeep Kumar's recent article regarding the council's refuse recyclable scheme with interest and a sense of hopelessness.

The article claimed that last year, Severn Waste handled in excess of 69,000 tonnes of recyclable material at their Pershore reclamation facility.

Well, I do not doubt the article's figures, because some of the evidence is there for all to see - in transparent plastic bags, every other week, waiting to be collected by special refuse wagons.

However, I cannot help wonder about the cost of the materials and energy that it takes to produce 69,000 tonnes of so-called recyclable material, an unnecessary cost that we all have to bear in one way or another.

As consumers, some of us have no choice in the non-biodegradable packaging material used in our purchased goods or the amount of unsolicited/junk mail that is pushed through our letterbox.

One then wonders at the cost to produce this amount of so-called recyclable material. It must be phenomenal.

The council refuse recyclable scheme may ease some of the consumers' conscience, but unless we stop producing this waste in the first place, we are not going to stop global warming or "Make Poverty History."

L SPITERI, Worcester.