Sir – A few weeks ago a new rubbish bin arrived at my house. I hadn’t requested it but on reading the label I understood I was to use it and my existing one could be used for green rubbish or be collected, I just had to ring the number.

Well, the number was wrong, but I eventually traced the right number and asked for it to be collected as I did not need it. I was told that this would happen over the following week, between 6am and 5.30pm and I should leave my gate open.

I did this and, yes, it wasn’t collected. I rang again and was told I was mistaken and the collection covered two weeks as there were 50,000 to collect. I waited a further week, it is still here.

I gather that the new bins cost £18 and so 50,000 would cost around £900,000.

Of course, this only covers the salary of a few senior executives and I shouldn’t worry. Although my ‘old’ bin is very fit-for-purpose and is rather better made than the new one.

My concern is that this way of handling the matter appears inept and expensive.

Gerard van Dam, Eynsham