REFUSE collection in Ryedale is to be cut soon. It will only be collected every two weeks instead of each week as it is now.

The weeks in between will be used to gather the green waste and recycleable stuff. Thornton Dale Civic Amenity Centre is to close.

The retention of foul waste on domestic property for two weeks, especially in the middle of summer, will be very bad news.

The thought of a wheelie bin full of waste food, babies' nappies, sanitary towels and routine medical waste such as colostomy bags and incontinence pads, sitting festering away for two weeks in a residential garden is appalling. Especially if it's next to me - or you...

However, in practice, most people will get round the problem in their own way.

Some will just spread their dirty waste around all their available bins for it will be collected every week.

When the council discovers this is happening they will have to create refuse bin police to enforce the rules.

Fly tipping will increase dramatically. Other residents will just burn the rubbish in their garden spreading dioxins and other noxious chemicals throughout the countryside. Those more friendly to the environment will buy a monster waste disposal unit - and deluge the sewage plant.

The increase in household waste is not my fault. I don't want the packaging that encases four screws from B&Q or the polystyrene box that comes with a pork chop from Asda. But I have to take it and pass on the packaging to the refuse people.

My message to the council is to get at big business and retailers not the long-suffering and highly-taxed public. Take away the waste every week as we have since the last plague and keep Ryedale healthy.

Ian M Scott,

Farmanby Close,

Thornton Dale.

Updated: 10:16 Monday, April 19, 2004