Sir, Further to your leading article “Plastic population” (Jan 22), the debate on plastic packaging is long overdue but the subject is not as straightforward as it may seem.
Paper bags are assumed to be better for the environment than plastic as they are sustainable and compostable. However, they have a higher initial ecology cost than plastic bags owing to the high level of energy used in the manufacturing process and the difficulty of re-using them.
Plastic does much good, for example, by preventing food waste by keeping foods fresher for longer; it is our lack of inventiveness and care with how we dispose of it that is causing so much harm to our planet. Our whole waste disposal culture and process needs an overhaul.
In developing a product for the disposal of sanitary items to avoid aquatic pollution, it has become apparent to us that technology, while improving, is not keeping up with our demand for more eco-friendly solutions. Despite using biodegradable plastic made from 35 per cent sustainable sources, we are now aiming, with difficulty, to find an 80 to 90 per cent sustainable material that is fit for purpose.
Martha Silcott
Chief executive, FabLittleBag
Sir, A great deal has been written in papers and magazines about the iniquitous and gratuitous use of plastic packaging. Perhaps the print media, including The Times on Saturday and The Sunday Times, and organisations that purport to care for the environment, such as the National Trust, Country Walking etc, would care to examine their own distribution practices. Hardly a day goes by without something dropping through my letterbox covered in non-recyclable plastic. What happened to paper envelopes?
Niki Tompkinson
London SW19
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Sir, Your leader deplores “the scandal of unrecyclable plastic pouches, sent to landfill in their billions, often by consumers who wrongly believed them to be environmentally friendly”.
But putting things in landfill doesn’t result in them being deposited in the sea, which is our main concern. At least one of our councils must have sold their waste products to a company whose ships emptied their contents into the sea while allegedly taking them for recycling to a foreign country.
Jim Taylor
Westbury-on-Severn, Glos
Sir, I read with amusement of the predicament of the NHS in running out of their supply of plastic aprons for their staff (News, Jan 20). Now that China has refused to take our dirty plastic waste, perhaps it is time to return to a proper nurse’s uniform and go back to starched white aprons.
I trained in the 1960s and we wore a clean starched apron for every shift, changing it during the shift if it became soiled (which rarely happened). The use of plastic on the wards was minimal while sitting on beds was forbidden and hand washing was the first and most important thing we were taught.
Perhaps a return to starched white aprons washed by hospital laundries would not only save the NHS money; it might even help to save the planet.
Georgina Buxton
Cradley, Worcs
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LOYALTY TO THE NHS
Sir, Niall Dickson, the head of the NHS Confederation, argues that junior doctors should be forced to remain loyal to the National Health Service as if they were in the military. (“NHS doctors who move abroad ‘should pay back training costs’ ”, Jan 22). He argues that it costs £220,000 to train each doctor.
The same NHS bosses seem to have no moral difficulty in travelling to countries such as the Philippines and Nigeria to poach doctors and nurses. Presumably it costs these countries similar amounts to train their healthcare professionals and they are less able to bear the financial loss of staff migration to the UK, depriving their populations of much-needed medical care.
NHS staff leave because they are managed by intimidation and bullying rather than encouragement and support.
Niall Dickson’s proposal will ensure that even fewer school leavers enter medicine and nursing, and even more clinical staff are taken from poorer countries to support our failing healthcare system.
Paul Nolan
Consultant trauma and orthopaedic spinal surgeon
JUSTICE REFORM
Sir, Rachel Sylvester’s wise and balanced call for justice reform (“Justice must be ruled by the head, not heart”, Comment, Jan 23) brought respectful applause from this seasoned campaigner.
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Sentencing demands attention — not least because no one clearly understands how imprisonment for ten years means that the offender leaves prison in fewer than five; the secrecy of the Parole Board’s decisions is indefensible if the board is properly regarded as an independent court-like body; and transformation of prison education is the first step in transforming lives.
John Samuels, QC
President, Prisoners’ Education Trust
HOME SCHOOLING
Sir, Melanie Reid (Notebook, Jan 22) highlights the high incidence of home schooling, which I also find most concerning. When I worked in children’s social care services it often struck me that educating children at home was more about the needs of the parents than the needs of the children. Sometimes I would find a depressed mother who couldn’t bear to let her child go to school, or a pushy parent living vicariously through their child.
It is difficult to contemplate many situations in which someone often with no teaching experience is able to cover a whole curriculum for a child, let alone provide all the opportunities of being in a team or learning to make friends in the playground. Granted
a child may be getting more individual attention but input from individuals other than your family before you step out into the world is surely desirable.
Elizabeth Ewart-James
Stroud, Glos
NEED TO ENCOURAGE APPRENTICESHIPS
Sir, You are right to highlight some of the flaws in the government’s apprenticeship programme (“Training Failing”, leading article, Jan 23). It is essential that new providers are properly inspected and the quality of apprenticeships is improved. But there are two other flaws that need to be remedied.
At present 60 per cent of apprenticeships for people under 25 take them to level 2 (roughly GCSE standard), but only a quarter of those who start a level 2 apprenticeship progress to a more demanding level 3. If they wish to progress, they must start a new programme. Progression should be automatic if young people are to gain qualifications that offer the standard expected in apprenticeships in countries such as Germany and Switzerland.
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There has also been talk of higher and degree apprenticeships offering a debt-free paid alternative to traditional university degrees. However, only 8,000 of the 30,000 of those starting each year on higher and degree-level apprenticeships in England are young people. This compares with more than 300,000 new young undergraduates annually.
If the government is serious about an apprenticeships revolution, we need better progression and more higher and degree-level apprenticeships.
Sir Peter Lampl
Founder and chairman, the Sutton Trust
Sir, I have introduced apprenticeships in two law firms and have had concerning experiences. How can we encourage young people to choose apprenticeships when the training providers are not interested in high-quality training? Most apprentices are young and it requires a huge amount of extra support from companies to give an apprentice a chance of succeeding. It’s not a fair starting point.
Natasha Rowe
London TW8
FROZEN BENEFITS
Sir, I take issue with Richard Morrison’s assertion that Grimsby residents are “largely indifferent” to the fate of Grimsby’s Ice Factory (The Arts Column, Jan 19). As chairwoman of the Great Grimsby Ice Factory Trust, I have witnessed the strong feelings that local people hold in relation to their heritage and to preserving our old buildings for future generations as, yes, a reminder of times gone by: our history.
But it’s not just a case of looking fondly back. The Grimsby Ice Factory was an engineering wonder and is a rare survivor of its period. As part of the history of refrigeration it also links us to global commerce and medical possibilities today.
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There are many “relics”, including castles and cathedrals, that create jobs for the young.
What we need, to bring the Ice Factory back to useful life, is investment. Nomination to Europa Nostra’s list of endangered sites will raise Grimsby’s profile and realise the potential of our heritage assets.
Vicky Hartung
Chairwoman, Great Grimsby Ice Factory Trust
VOTES FOR MEN
Sir, It is appropriate that the granting to women of the right to vote in 1918, albeit not to all of them, should be widely celebrated this year. What is surprising is that little mention is being made of the fact that the Representation of the People Act of 1918 also extended the vote to the remaining 40 per cent or so of men, some five and a half million, who had also not had the right to vote.
Philip Cottam
London SE1
IN THE PICTURE
Sir, Further to your report “Why naughty children’s characters have to play it safe” (Jan 23), in my experience a two-year-old boy has no need of literary guidance on how to put himself in the tumble dryer and possesses an aching curiosity as to what happens when one ignores a shout of “Hot! Don’t touch!” in relation to the oven. In fact, I would welcome a picture book to explain to him the potential A&E consequences applicable to little boys as much as they are to mice and rabbits.
Jane Park-Weir
Basingstoke, Hants
LAW OF CLAWS
Sir, I read about the paw bias in cats with interest (“Left is right for stress-free tom cats”, Jan 23).
I have noticed over the years that every parrot or parakeet that I have had will balance on its perch using the left claw while manipulating the feed with its right one.
Dr Alun Stedman
Aberdyfi, Gwynedd
DARK SARCASM
Sir, I write further to your article “Call for more sarcasm at school is no joke” (Jan 20) and letter (Jan 23). Two memorable examples in the 1950s from my housemaster — in the reports of class colleagues, I hasten to add — were: “He sets himself a very low standard which he consistently fails to maintain” and “Takes no trouble but gives none either.”
Bruce Parker
Appleshaw, Hants