SIR - Why does recyclable plastic have to be bottle-shaped? Can anyone tell me why only plastic bottles can be recycled at plastic banks? On the side of the banks it states that they accept two types of plastic: PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and HDPE (

SIR - Why does recyclable plastic have to be bottle-shaped?

Can anyone tell me why only plastic bottles can be recycled at plastic banks? On the side of the banks it states that they accept two types of plastic: PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and HDPE (high density polyethylene).

There are many items in common usage apart from bottles that are made from this stuff and could easily be recycled, food trays, some bottle lids, and all sorts of other packaging for toys, tools, Easter eggs, etc.

Of course food trays need to be clean before they can go for recycling but many are not contaminated in the first place; fruit punnets, cake containers, etc. In any case, hygiene cannot be a major issue if plastic milk bottles are permitted in plastics banks.

All plastics have symbols denoting what they are made of printed or embossed on the packaging, so it's easy to tell if they are suitable - the numbers one and two inside the triangular recycling symbol denote PET and HDPE respectively.

And yet we are told that anything that is not a bottle is not acceptable. Why is this?

Can someone enlighten me? I am sure we could all recycle a lot more of our plastic rubbish if this issue was cleared up.

VICKY WYER

Hitchin

SIR - Can I just point out that the council are forever going on about recycling, and encouraging us to do so, despite having increased our council tax this year. Despite this we are, it seems, all doing our bit to help.

It absolutely infuriates me that the plastic bottle banks are overflowing, and after making numerous phone calls nothing has been done. People are now leaving the bottles in plastic bags next to these bins, and as you can imagine they are blown everywhere, all over Letchworth it seems.

DENISE

Gaunts Way

Letchworth Garden City