I WROTE recently with regard to the amount of recycling receptacles which many households in the city now have – five to date – only to discover that this is to change from October.

A large blue wheelie bin will replace the green and blue boxes which we have at present, and recyclable items, such as glass, cardboard, paper, tins and plastic, would all go into this one bin.

It is a clever idea – though some councils have been doing this for years.

If this does come into operation, then instead of five different vehicles coming down the streets, there would be only three – for refuse, garden rubbish and kitchen waste.

At this time of the year, if people budget properly, there shouldn’t be much kitchen waste – and what there is could go out for the birds, which are looking for food.

This should mean kitchen waste only needs collecting from colleges and restaurants and the like.

At this time of year there is also not much garden waste to be collected – so it is not necessary to collect every two weeks.

This would be another saving. It could revert to fortnightly collections in the springtime.

If a private company was in charge of scheduling these collections, it would have found it non-viable and would have gone out of business long ago.

But as it is council tax money, that doesn’t seem to matter.

COLIN SMITH George Moore Close Donnington Oxford