Having dutifully purchased my biodegradable garden rubbish bags at our local village store, I went home to get busy and fill them.

As there were several bags, I decided it was easier to take them straight down to the refuse centre there and then.

I was just about to throw the bags into the garden waste skip, when a chap standing next to me said the bags should be emptied.

Cleverly I replied they were the special biodegradable bags which could go straight in the skip.

Just then the on-site operative passed by so I thought I would doublecheck – only to be told the bags should in fact be emptied into the skip as, apparently, it had been discovered they weren’t biodegrading as quickly as they should.

‘What was the point in buying the special bags then?’ I enquired.

‘No point whatsoever’, came the reply.

Which begs the question, ‘what is happening to all the garden waste collected in bags from homes?’

Sue Trousdale, Rigg View, Stainsacre