Sir – It is heartening to read that more than 1,700 volunteers gave their time to pick up litter around Oxford in OxClean’s Spring Clean 2011 (Report, March 10), although it’s shameful that there is so much litter. Hopefully, this demonstration of public-spiritedness might make people think twice before tossing their litter into the environment.

Unsightly though it is, litter is but the visible tip of the iceberg of the problem of ‘waste’. The city council’s new recycling measures should contribute to a much-needed increase in the proportion of Oxford household waste that is recycled, reused or composted from its 2009/10 level of 38 per cent (DEFRA).

More fundamental, though, is that as a society we produce too much ‘waste’ to start with. The Government is currently conducting a ‘Review of Waste Policies’ in England (due in May) to set new goals for 2014, 2020 and beyond, with the stated aim of moving towards a ‘zero waste’ economy.

Such policies should involve businesses as well as local authorities, because we need to move towards products that are made to last and can be repaired, as well as reused and recycled. Is it too optimistic to think perhaps there might be less work to be done in OxClean’s spring clean in 2020?

Vivienne Brown, Oxford Friends of the Earth