It is no exaggeration to say that virtually everything that has happened in the UK during the past few years is a direct consequence of joining the EU in the 1970s. It’s also mainly due to Gordon Brown putting his signature to the Treaty of Lisbon.

One of those consequences is the subject to of rubbish collection.

An EU directive on how rubbish is collected and sorted via numerous bins, green, black and brown. But notwithstanding the fact that because of this crazy and ridiculous expensive exercise, the average person in the UK spends at least an hour sorting out rubbish and food waste, millions of gallons of water wasted washing out tin cans, and prebiotic yoghurt pots!

I presume, then, that the bureaucrats in Brussels are far more interested in making sure that every tin can etc is scrubbed and shiny clean, than the amount of water that is being wasted every day.

And perhaps we shouldn’t forget that most of our rubbish will end up on a landfill site in China – or dumped somewhere in Dorset, anyway.

And lastly, how come my 90-year-old mother’s food waste container remained uncollected for three weeks when, once upon a time, her entire rubbish – and everybody else’s – and food waste was collected every week without fail, and without wasting gallons of water each week scrubbing tin cans and plastic pots.

Andrew Martin, Abbotsbury Road, Weymouth