I WOULD like to add my support to Robin Tomlinson's words on the "hidden" news on waste disposal for the west wards of York (Letters, July 4).

I was prompted to look more closely at the proposals and the statistics involved and this raised some questions that would seem to have been given "the swerve" or ignored.

After inspecting my own bin content, it was evident that the major item was the profusion of food packaging, both card and plastic, that envelops all products bought from virtually any retail outlet.

Food encrusted polystyrene and plastic packaging is a major item that accounts for a large percentage of my bin content, far more than the 11 per cent statistic quoted.

I might add that every week my bin is almost full while all garden waste, plastic bottles, cardboard and paper is taken to the tip by me, as is done by many in York.

I must express concern about the plight of young families with very young children in disposable nappies. What category do these fall into?

The prospect of two weeks' decomposing nappies with two weeks' food waste in the height of summer does not bear thinking about.

My sympathies go to the poor individuals who have to live with the stench and health risk from rats and maggots. This extends to the unfortunate waste collection teams who will have to cope with it. What a truly awful job they will be asked to do.

I appreciate very much the difficulty the council is in but feel that public health is being sacrificed in finding an easy answer to a truly difficult problem.

J A Whitmore,

Springfield Road,

Upper Poppleton, York.

Updated: 09:00 Tuesday, July 12, 2005