D J SPINK said it was ridiculous to claim that York's Christmas lights are fed on renewable electricity and that it is hard to believe that we have arranged a separate cable from the wind farm in Wales to the Christmas lights in York (November 26).

This has not been arranged. Renewable energy is no different from "normal" electricity in that it comes through the existing national grid to the socket in your wall.

Individuals and businesses can sign up with companies supplying renewable energy tariffs and can choose between one of two environmental payment options; supply or fund.

The supply method is where the electricity supplier measures the amount of electricity you use and guarantees an equivalent amount is bought into the national grid from a renewable source.

This is the method used for the York Christmas lights.

The energy required to power the lights is being measured and npower will buy in the equivalent in renewable energy from existing hydro and wind power sources. Therefore, for each unit demanded for the lights a unit of renewable energy will enter the national grid instead of a unit of "normal" energy.

The second option is through funding schemes where you can choose to pay into a fund to support future investments in the development of new renewable energy sources (for more information www.futureenergy.org.uk).

With regards to recycling Yellow Pages. This is not something I am involved with but I believe that the reason for the lack of facilities for recycling Yellow Pages is lack of demand for such low grade recycled paper.

Laura Collins,

PlanetYork Campaign Manager,

Energy Efficiency Advice Centre,

George Hudson Street, York.

Updated: 10:11 Thursday, November 29, 2001