GEORGE Rennie (Letters, October 3) makes some interesting and very fair points about the long-awaited deposit scheme, and its inherent bureaucratic issues.

There are, however, existing models for successful schemes across the North Sea and I understand these systems are being studied closely. Let's hope that a scheme of this kind can come to fruition in Scotland too.

Scotland's recycling figures are indeed disappointing, but I'm not quite convinced by the proposal that local authorities should weigh and record the contents of individual households' bins. Somewhere before recycling comes consumer waste awareness, understanding of design issues and considerations of ways of reusing. I'd be disappointed if households whose members habitually purchased very packaged (albeit recyclable) products were rewarded whilst those rejecting excess packaging when buying were penalised.

Why give the benefits to those sending glass to recycling, rather than those who refill their vessels, making jams, pickles and the like? What about those who buy plastic-boxed tomatoes, rather than those weighing fruit and vegetables in paper (home-compostable) bags? Think of those plastic-shelled Easter eggs, and the available alternatives. So, whilst I'm not knocking the writer's ideas, it can't be quite the way to go.

Returning to that glass: mixed recycling of glass is energy-intensive, and generally results in a surfeit of brown glass, and a shortage of the more-needed clear product. Unbroken glass is, after all, almost infinitely reusable. Consider the range of well-cast gin bottles alone. How hard would it be, for example, for those making deliveries to the hospitality trade to ensure their vans returned with the uplifted empties? Yes, just as used to be the norm for the much cheaper milk bottles.

In Spain I see attractive cast glass mineral water bottles with tear-off recyclable aluminium lids, set on tables. These are returned to the plants for refilling. It is possible.

That's just one small thing, which rolled out could make a difference.
Beth McDonough, Dundee

We must stop wind idiocy

JOHN Urquhart (Letters, October 4) seems to think it's a good idea to place wind turbines in the Trossachs national park. There is a reason why wind turbines are not placed in urban residential environments. They are massive, noisy, industrial machines. Anybody who has stood within 100 metres of one of these monstrosities is aware of this fact. Nobody wants them situated anywhere near their communities.

Spraying wind turbines around Scotland's beautiful countryside is an abomination. If this was being done at the behest of the Westminster Government there would be riots, but anything is acceptable with an SNP/Green whitewash. It's also debatable whether the supposed green credentials stack up, taking into account the required back-up electricity generation, the environmental damage from roads and cabling, the tonnes of concrete and steel required in construction and the limited life of their non-recyclable blades. This idiocy needs to stop.
Christopher Collins, Larbert

Catalogue of surface errors

I RETIRED earlier this month from a 50-year-plus career supervising major road construction projects, mainly overseas. Having just arrived back in Scotland, it is with some professional interest that I have been observing a protracted re-surfacing operation in Spencer Street, just off Fulton Street, Glasgow G13.

Someone who knows about these things once told me that due to the famous "Tory cuts" Glasgow could afford to resurface its roads only every 40-50 years.

You might expect, then, that when it does a re-surfacing operation it would be to the highest standard, given how long it might have to last. You would be wrong.

I truthfully cannot remember ever seeing such a catalogue of errors incorporated in a bituminous road surfacing project, the least of which is laying two layers of asphalt over a leaking water main that had been leaking, to my knowledge, for more than two years; water is already percolating through the new surface. I give this road surfacing five years of effective life at most; not the 15 years that is surely intended.

If this is the general standard of workmanship carried out by this council, and my observations of other recent resurfacing operations lead me to conclude that it is, heads need to roll. What it means, in effect, is that a cash-strapped council is paying three times the actual cost of every square metre of road it repairs.
J McCluskey, Glasgow

Hungry for correct usage

REGARDING the recent correspondence on grammar and punctuation: Adolescents, as we all know or even remember, are permanently hungry and will eat anything which is not nailed down. I am fortunate enough to be a grandmother of several such beings. Therefore I am very interested in ensuring that the comma appears correctly in the sentence "Let's eat, Granny".
Katherine Hutchison, Keith

The kilt killjoys?

YOUR front page photo of King Charles wearing the garb in Dunfermline ("King of the city", The Herald October 4) does the heart good. However, on reflection I cannot remember a single photograph of either of his sons ever wearing a kilt. End of an era?
Roddy MacDonald, Ayr

Any cross words?

I WONDER how long it's taken the provocative 2 of 20 Across – "BE QUIET, LIE IN HAZE (5,9,2) – in this month's jumbo crossword (Clootie, The Herald, October 3) to stir the usual hornets' nest among a certain section of the Herald letterati?
James Macleod, Glasgow

Chewing over the toast

MARK Bratchpiece's letter (October 4) quoting the Hebrew toast "L'chaim", meaning "To life", had me scrambling for my Google dictionary. Subsequent research reveals a song from Fiddler on the Roof, with the lines "L'chaim, l'chaim, to life/ Here's to the father I tried to be!/Here's to my bride to be!".

At my age, the last line may be stretching it a bit, although Will Fyfe sang of "getting married on Thursday, though I'm 94 today ". The lady of the house is not privy to this letter.
David Miller, Milngavie

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