Letters

Helpful highway hippies

Ed, Many thanks for the Independents front-page coverage of the good news story of Ethan and Seina, a couple of local youngsters getting stuck into removing litter from our local roads. A lot of roadside litter is comprised of plastic bags which can kill birds and even prize cows as your feature relates. Plastics are made from oil, a very valuable finite resource about which future wars may be fought as this resource becomes more scarce. Most plastics are very durable, long-lasting materials which are best suited to reusable products. So a “front-end” way to ensure that less plastic bags litter our roadsides is to try not to choose what you can’t reuse, that is to demand and choose to use durable reusable products in preference to single-use disposables, convenient products that are best suited to a throw-away world. Olegas Truhanas, the Hungarian canoeist who put the Tasmanian wilderness on the map for generations of tourists to enjoy. He put it this way…”If you love your country, you will look after it.” Again, many thanks to Ethan, Seina, Roy and Bryan. All the best in the future you choose. Harry Johnson Former co-ordinator, Kingfisher Recycling Centre, Aspley Special School, Iluka.