AT last the Government is throwing its weight behind kerbside recycling and encouraging new creative investment in this industry.

I returned from Canada with memories of one small plastic bag full of rubbish from each home - that was all the garbage trucks had to collect. Yet here in England huge black bins piled high with rubbish stand waiting at each door. It's a nightmare. Where does all the rubbish go? Is our island rising year by year on its own mountain of waste?

Are we polluting our land for future generations? Are we killing ourselves with toxic waste? The answer is probably yes to all these questions. Yet things could be so different. I have lived with two "blue boxes".

Into one go newspapers in one plastic bag and cardboard and magazines in another. Into the second one go all tins, glass and plastic containers, etc. Kitchen waste goes into the waste disposal in the sink, or into the compost with the garden rubbish.

What remains as unrecycled rubbish is minimal. Waste management is big business in Canada - and communities are cleaning up their act as a result. Waste management is ripe for investment in this country. Where are those creative entrepreneurs who can take our rubbish and turn it into something useful - and make a profit in the process? The support of every one of us is vital.

We have a chance to clean up our streets, clean up our waste and take responsibility for our own rubbish. New initiatives in kerbside recycling are more than welcome. So I ask the council:

When can we expect our blue or green boxes?

Sue Lister,

Curlew Glebe,

Dunnington, York.