I WRITE in response to a letter (June 22) in which the writers asks why Bury Council won't be including cartons in their cardboard collections.

I'd like to reassure all your local residents that our cartons can be recycled.

Made from a mix of paperboard, polyethylene and in some cases aluminium, cartons are actually successfully recycled in large volumes throughout Europe, where their high-quality paper fibres can be used for paper carrier bags and envelopes.

Unfortunately, carton collection and recycling in the UK still lags well behind European levels.

The UK carton industry is committed to increasing UK carton recycling rates and is working with local councils and other groups to help set up carton collection and recycling schemes.

Since April last year, the UK carton industry has made £1.5million available to help local authorities interested in starting up carton collection schemes in their area. We are already hitting about 100 district areas with carton collections and we're well on the way to achieving national coverage during the next 18 months.

We are also working with new paper mills to trial carton recycling to ensure we can cater for this increase in carton recycling, as more areas come on board.

We're in the process of speaking to councils and waste management companies across Greater Manchester and Lancashire to boost carton recycling, but we'd be happy to speak with anybody in your area about setting up carton collection schemes locally.

In the meantime, anyone who would like to recycle cartons can take advantage of our postal service by downloading labels from www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk.

RICHARD HANDS Environment Manager Tetra Pak UK