I WOULD like to add my two penny worth to the recent bonfire debate' letters and ask a few pertinent questions.

As a Green person I try to damage the environment as little as possible.

To this end, I try not to put any organic matter into our wheely bin. However, keeping our garden tidy creates much waste. Hedge, tree and bush trimming results in piles of branches, twigs and leaves.

If I shred the waste, neighbours will tend to complain about the noise. If I burn this waste I will receive complaints about smoke. If I cram our waste into a wheely bin, I contribute to the volume methane gases leaking out of a landfill site and, in doing so, go against my Green principles.

Even If I just shred our waste and create a very large compost heap, I still have a problem.

Our garden and our neighbours' gardens have holly and pyracantha growing in them. Due to their sharp spikes, neither plant's trimmings are easy to shred, or reuse after shredding, and almost impossible to transport by car to High Heavens recycling centre.

So, what do I do with holly and pyracantha cuttings? We also suffer from ivy, ground elder, buttercups and convolvulus.

How do we dispose of such virulent weeds that are so hard to destroy?

Despite all the efforts of the employees of Wycombe District Council, our councillors have not chosen to introduce green box' collections and we cannot recycle plastic bottles, as residents are able to do in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. Last week, Bill Purdie raised concerns over incineration plants', and rightly so.

With High Heavens landfill site in High Wycombe full and Wapsey's Wood in Gerrards Cross fast filling up, a council that recycles so little of its waste may well start preaching the advantages of incineration.

So, let's be clear here. In the four Rs', reduction, repair and re-use take priority over recycling.

When subsequently required, recycling is good and beneficial to our environment.

Incineration is a wasteful and dangerous use of valuable waste materials.

Hopefully, the introduction of long awaited recycling plans designed to dramatically increase the percentage of waste recycled in the district will negate the need for a giant incineration plant (at the end of your garden?).

John Laker,

(High Wycombe

& Marlow Green

Party)

Spinfield Lane

Marlow