CORKS will not rot down and, if you put them in your compost bin, you will be digging up corks for years and years to come (Letters, January 6).

They will take longer than small pieces of timber to disappear.

Corks are used as cushions at the ends of bowling greens, and I have known them used for footpaths.

If used for compost, they must be ground into small bits, like grapes used to be packed in.

Of course plastic "stoppers" must not be used or any corks with plastic tops.

The Rev L S Rivett,

Ryecroft Avenue,

Woodthorpe,

York.

Updated: 11:09 Tuesday, January 10, 2006