| Letter to the Editor - 10th Oct 2007 |
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| Wednesday, 10 October 2007 | |
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Dear Editor One way to reduce the amount of litter which accumulates in and around containers is simply not to take it home! How? Unpacking your purchases while still at the check-out desk in the supermarket - once you have paid for it - is an ideal way to reduce the litter you would - otherwise - have to dispose of in your local container. Much packaging serves not to protect products, but simply to make it more attractive - to catch the eye of the shopper. This excess, colourful advertising packaging can be conveniently left behind you, instead of taking it home. A tube of toothpaste, say, comes in a cardboard box which is really not needed at home. So why take it home? The supermarket will dispose of this box for you. They, in their turn, will return it to their suppliers and, eventually, the end-producers at the start of this chain will get the message - they are producing too much unnecessary packaging, which leads to over-flowing containers. Things that must be taken home - for example, plastic water bottles - can be flattened by standing on them, evacuating all the air, and then screwing down the top, so it stays flat. The limited space in the plastics-container is then not taken up by just a few empty water bottles, still full of air, but will take up to 5 times as many flattened bottles. Cardboard and tin cans can be similarly flattened and condensed and glass bottles smashed, increasing the capacity inside the respective containers. Household effects, like old boilers, fridges or sofas, will be collected free by calling the environmental department of Pollença council. New containers also now exist for your old cooking oil, which is then re-used, to power "green" council diesel vehicles. Caring for our local neighbourhood and keeping the area around our containers clean starts with us - the neighbours and residents. Dr. (med. dent). Garry Bonsall
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