COUNCILLOR Byrne in last week's Bury Times, said he found my letter "totally confusing and misleading".

I could say that about the directions on blue bins and green paper bags.

What is the point of continuing this?

By now he will know that the October 17 Urbis Public Consultation on the Greater Manchester Joint Waste Development Plan Document adopted my suggestion for a Comprehensive Guide for Recycling or Waste Management.

This was the main point in my letter which Coun Byrne found totally confusing.

It was adopted by members, after a thorough discussion, in the workshop I was a member of at the aforementioned consultation.

Then it was passed on up the line to Bury's own Coun Byrne, who is the chairman of the Steering Committee of the Greater Manchester Joint Waste Management Committee - a very important committee, as it apparently sets policy for Greater Manchester.

Members of the workshop were from all over Greater Manchester (only me from Bury) and included at least one councillor.

They readily accepted the need for such a guide, which would be "an ABC to inform households and industry on how to identify, separate and where to put or take waste from plastic bathtubs to carrier bags, to electronics..." (there is going to be a mountain of TVs alone, when we all have to convert to digital).

Coun Byrne left the consultation after he opened by lambasting the Americans for their green record. This was deserved, but not really directly relevant to waste disposal in Greater Manchester.

If this was a genuine consultation and not just a PR exercise, I assume that Coun Byrne and his steering committee will take account of the workshop recommendation and implement it.

Another idea I floated at the consultation was that the aim should be for zero waste.

Everything, even rubble, has a use. It just needs to be separated and recycled.

Britain did it during the Second World War - why not now?

BILL BRISON Bury