HOW appropriate that Bury Metro's recycling slogan -- "Sort It" -- is an anagram of "It's Rot!"

It is ill-conceived, poorly prepared and, worst of all, environmentally unfriendly.

There are now many more vehicles involved in collecting the various multi-coloured bins, bags and boxes, all adding their burnt fossil-fuel pollutants to the atmosphere. Open black boxes encourage pets and local wildlife to investigate, causing spillage and no doubt announcing to the ever-increasing rat population that food is on offer. And what, I wonder, will happen to all the plastic bags and boxes when their recycling days are up? Bottles, jars and cans are supposed to be rinsed prior to being put out for collection, using that scarce commodity, water, which we all know is due to soar in price over the next few years, especially in the north west.

Perhaps Bury Metro can help me out of my present quandary. I have just finished a bunch of grapes. Presumably the vine stalk can go in the brown bin, but what about the container? The bottom part is plastic, so should this go into the black box or the grey bin?

The top part, however, is paper and presumably goes in the grey bin as it is not newspaper.

In addition, the leaflet which was produced prior to the commencement of this scheme was equally poorly prepared. The date given for one collection was actually a Sunday -- March 7. The suggestion that further bags and boxes could be obtained by ringing the Customer Service number was similarly misleading, as I was told that demand had exceeded supply and I could use any kind of plastic bag for my newspapers.

As a way forward, I would suggest one of the following approaches:

Bury Metro goes the whole hog and really gets into the spirit of coloured bins, bags and boxes by providing red bins for United fans and sky blue bins for City fans; and what about putting coloured hoops around all receptacles to indicate your council tax band.

Better still we go back to one bin for all rubbish, which would be collected weekly, and financial resources put into employing dozens of sorters who would do the job that the council tax payers have paid for.

ANNOYED