Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment

Mrs Griffiths had a recipe for waste

An over-stocked food cupboard, filled with tinned food.
‘Only tins remained, which were hammered flat with a stone and collected by the council once a year.’ Photograph: capt.digby/Alamy

Re your article on trying to reduce consumption and waste (The long read, 28 November), I recall our family holiday in Aberporth, Wales, in 1961, when I was 15. We stayed with Mrs Griffiths, whose waste was mostly either composted or burned on her kitchen stove. Only tins remained, which were hammered flat with a stone and collected by the council once a year. She was ahead of her time. Bravo!
Roger Forshaw
Romsey, Hampshire

• Thank you for the columns celebrating what Shane MacGowan gave us, including that by Alexis Petridis (Shane MacGowan: the poet-musician of dereliction who became a mythic figure, 30 November). Perhaps Westminster city council will agree to another bench in Soho Square a few metres from Kirsty MacColl’s. They could bicker for eternity while the pigeons shiver in the naked trees.
John Clarke
West Stratton, Hampshire

• Few should be surprised by Sultan Al Jaber’s comments on climate change (Cop28 president says there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels, 3 December). Entrusting Cop28 to the United Arab Emirates is like having a lion advise on vegetarian cuisine.
Margaret Morgan
Rotterdam, Netherlands

• Can someone please save us from every sandwich being filled with cranberries just because it’s nearly Christmas? I haven’t eaten jam butties since I was six years old, and I don’t want to suffer them now.
Dr Michael Paraskos
London

• Re James Dyson’s libel case loss (Letters, 3 December), I guess he’ll just have to suck it up.
Christopher Osborne
West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire

• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and on our Saturday letters spread in the print edition.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.