WASTE domestic and commercial is an increasing problem in our affluent society.

We British throw away enough rubbish every two hours to fill the Albert Hall ie 430 million tons a year from industry, quarrying, construction, household bins and litter!

Two-thirds of our landfill waste is organic, biodegradable matter which, when it decomposes, produces methane. In fact 25 per cent of Britain's methane emissions in 2001 ie two per cent of our total "greenhouse gas" emissions came from this source.

Between 30 and 40 per cent of all British food ends up in the bin and at least 25 per cent of it could be safely eaten by animals or turned into compost.

Packaging has gone berserk. We use 460,000 tons of plastic bottles and 32,000 tons of plastic trays each year. We also get through 20 million tons of glass, only 30 per cent of which is ever recycled.

Some 70 per cent of our household waste could be recycled or composted, but less than 17 per cent actually is.

The Dutch manage 79 per cent of their waste so why do we lag so much? In Britain, Litchfield recycles 46.2 per cent of its household waste compared with only four per cent at Liverpool.

Where, it is cogent to ask, does Wycombe District come between these two? We throw away at least one million tons of electrical equipment each year.

Present rates suggest that each of us will, during an average lifetime, dispose of 12 washing machines, ten fridges, eight cookers, three dishwashers, 95 small appliances like vacuum cleaners and irons, 35 pieces of IT equipment, and 55 TVs, camcorders etc?

All these contain toxins like lithium, lead, nickel, cadmium, which require specialist extraction and some 90 per cent end up in landfills. In August a new EU directive requires manufacturers and retailers to be responsible for collecting such goods and sending them to specialist recycling firms.

In view of all this it would be interesting for a mere voter and rubbish contributor to know just what action in all this chaos our district council is taking to increase waste disposal efficiency.

It is becoming obvious that councils vary tremendously in their ability to cope and prepare for the ominous spectre that, nationally and locally, we are rapidly running out of space for landfill sites.

Bill Purdie ,Marlow