The new paper recycling banks in York are a marvel of modern design.

Firstly, these plastic containers are easily flammable compared with their metal predecessors.

Secondly, the thick brush strips guarding the slots prevent you from quickly finding a bank that is not already full.

Thirdly, the thick brush strips and narrow slots make feeding in a handful of newspapers a chore compared with metal ones.

But enough of such trivia because we can at least say that these new plastic containers are bright, clean and shiny. Though a lick of paint would have achieved the same visual transformation on the old metal containers at a fraction of the environmental cost.

Dr Duncan Campbell,

Albemarle Road, York.

Updated: 11:17 Wednesday, July 16, 2003