Sir, – I was particularly interested in Carole Cockburn's letter, as she is our local councillor, in last week's Herald that was critical of the new waste, alternate-week collection service soon to be introduced in the Waverley district and of the apparent smugness or self-aggrandisement by the portfolio holder for the environment regarding the trial. It has been apparent to me, for some time, that the manner of collection of recyclables in the borough is, to say the least, leaving a lot to be desired as the containers are often impracticable for the task required, eg the lids of the boxes blow off in strong winds, the boxes are easily stolen because of their small size (mine was taken within a month of being issued), etc. Whoever is supposed to have thought through the implementation of a such a scheme? Do they have their feet on the ground or, as a friend said to me, have they a head on their shoulders? Why have we not adopted the scheme that operates successfully in most, if not all, of Hampshire for instance? There, they are issued with another differently coloured wheelie bin for recycled items and the Hart District, for instance, has achieved around 60 per cent levels of recyclable waste and they are only increasing their council tax in line with inflation. The scheme has been so successful that they have had to introduce larger wheelie bins than those originally issued. So why does Waverley think that the paltry sized containers that they issue to householders are sufficient, quite apart from their other deficiencies/ inadequacies including those mentioned by Mrs Cockburn? They can clearly recognise the size of things because the report in last week's Herald highlighted that they were delivered the incorrect size of garden waste bags! Perhaps it explains the poor level of recycling that has been achieved in the past year. Brighton & Hove, who have a similar scheme in operation, are only hoping to achieve similarly poor levels of recycling. An impression that I have gained, from walking around this area over the past year, is that fewer boxes are now being left out than when the scheme was introduced, so that tells a story in itself. Derek Mills, Stream Farm Close, Lower Bourne