AS the opening credits roll, sharp-eyed viewers of the American TV series, NYPD, may spot a man carrying an enormous bag of empty drinks cans on the streets of New York.

He is one of the city's army of can collectors - who pick up a few cents' money-back deposit with each empty.

Now, Labour back-bench MP Christopher Leslie is bidding, in a private Bill, for a law that puts a deposit on drinks bottles and cans over here.

The government and parliament should back it.

It would clean tons of rubbish from our streets at a stroke.

And one can only agree with Friends of the Earth that the BIll should go a step further to include take-away food cartons.

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