CONTRARY to the assertion of Venk Shenoi (letters last week), I did address the issues of cost and environmental effectiveness in my reply to him of the week before.

I stated clearly that government research, with all external factors considered, shows that householder separation of recyclables is more efficient in both money and CO2 terms than co-mingled systems with mechanised sorting. This data is all in the public domain.

Co-mingling recyclable material does not simplify matters. It increases contamination and leads to more stuff being needlessly landfilled, incinerated and exported to less well-regulated countries for hand-sorting.

The UK exports more mixed-up paper and plastic to the Far East than the rest of the EU put together.

Forest of Dean District Council staff work with the rest of the county in a joint waste team to make the best sense of resources.

Our new recycling system is very similar to that prescribed in the Welsh Government’s Collection Blueprint, and that has been so successful that were Wales a separate country, it would be second only to Germany in its recycling rate.

Dealing with our waste stream is a social and environmental duty for us consumers which can’t be delegated and relegated to an end-of-pipe engineering challenge.

People in Bristol, Newport and other places have been separating their recyclables to a high standard for many years. Foresters can do it too.

There’s no need to shout about recycling, just to sort our stuff and put it out on the right day.

— Andy Moore, Whitecroft.