Madam, - The crisp, clear mornings are a harbinger of the winter months ahead, but also a reminder of a past not long gone but certainly not forgotten.
I miss sharing my milk with the beautiful blue tits that regularly visited on freezing winter mornings to peck through the foil tops of our milk bottles and steal the cream. It helped see them through the winter months and it was a real treat for us to watch. They never took much. There was always enough for everyone - their bellies and our Weetabix and cup of tea before we headed off to school.
I want milk delivered to my door in glass bottles. I don't like the peculiar taste of milk stored in plastic. Milk also seems to stay fresh longer in glass, causing me to wonder if there has been a deliberate policy of attempting to increase consumption.
When milk was delivered in glass, the rate of re-use of bottles was extraordinarily high, and more importantly, quantifiable. With Tetra-pak or plastic there is no onus on the consumer or company to take back the container once its contents have been consumed.
In fact, individual companies can only estimate how many of their containers are actually being recycled rather than dumped. Where's the accountability in this?
Many containers are simply thrown away and mixed with the rest of the so-called non-recyclable waste that goes to landfill, which highlights the fundamental difference in many people's minds as to what they view recyclable materials to be, thus strengthening the case for the return of the humble glass bottle. There is also little thought given for the energy consumed and the new waste products made in recycling these materials.
It is disgraceful that, as EU citizens, we are denied this simplest of consumer choices simply because the plastics industry has a greater influence here than in other EU countries. We have only to cross the water to England to see that they still have milk delivered in glass. In Holland, even your yoghurt is delivered to your doorstep in glass bottles.
I am calling on all milk companies and supermarkets to take the lead and give consumers the choice of buying milk in glass with a return deposit on bottles purchased in stores. It'll be interesting to see who puts that foot forward. - Yours, etc.,
UNA McCORMACK, Plunkett Green, Finglas West, Dublin 11.