Sir, – A letter writer asks (April 8th) what public bins are for. In my opinion they are for the litter of people who can't be bothered taking their litter home with them and putting it in their own bin, which is what we should all do.
She mentions the plethora of masks, paper cups, poo bags, etc, which the public is now reluctant to lift from the ground.
Well that litter did not arrive on the ground all by itself – people threw it there. The local authority can’t be blamed for that.
I agree that takeaway food and drinks establishments, including mobile ones, should be required to provide their own bins to give customers the option of putting the empty containers, chip bags, burger cartons, etc, into these.
Perhaps we do need some public bins, and the purveyors of takeaway food and drinks need to be levied to pay for them, but let’s put the blame for litter where it lies: on the litter louts. If we didn’t have them we wouldn’t need public bins. Yours etc,
BILL POWER,
Tramore,
Co Waterford.