ON a visit to friends living in Germany my husband and I were astounded by the cleanliness of streets, roads and every town visited.

Homes are provided with small wheelie bins in different colours for recycling of garden, household, plastic and glass rubbish.

Every supermarket and store provides collection boxes at the check-out for customers to deposit used batteries of every size and even car parks everywhere have space for bins to put different types of rubbish.

Legislation must go ahead by environment ministers to ensure batteries are safely recycled.

On our week's visit not once did we see graffiti, vandalism or one small piece of paper on streets and roads. Britain needs to wake up.

SHEILA BRENNAN (Mrs), Bombay Street, Blackburn.