Sir, – One of the understated pleasures of walking the roads is the dietary and cultural insights one gains from perusing the copious amounts of litter joyfully cast from speeding cars onto margins and fields.
On a recent short Sunday stroll, I collected a representative sample from one side of the road only of 36 lager and soft drink cans (17 Galahads, six Bulmers, one Rockshore, one Sainte Etienne, one Red Bull, one Monster energy drink, eight Coca Colas, and one 7Up).
Perhaps now with the introduction of minimum unit alcohol pricing, we will see less of the empties adorning our roadsides.
But a Government with a jot of wit might also have introduced a recycling deposit incentive scheme to help those hard-pressed drinkers to recoup some of their alcohol outlay by recycling their cans and addressing this long-term problem of littering, instead of just enhancing the profits of retailers. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS FINN,
Cappataggle,
Ballinasloe,
Co Galway.