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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.

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