LIKE most of the residents of our beautiful county, I try to be as green' as possible - especially when it comes to waste disposal.

I applaud the efforts our council has made in providing recycling centres around the city and the recycling collection service via the weekly waste collection service also.

Unfortunately I cannot take advantage of the latter because I live in an apartment block where the recycling service, for some reason, is not available.

Nevertheless, I still recycle our used paper, cardboard, glass and plastic (you can often see me trudging down the hill with three or four bags full every week).

I called into Garrick House for some advice from the council on how to deal with small batteries (eg, size AA - about the size of my little finger) - we must use hundreds, if not thousands of these every week, collectively - and was advised to take them to the household waste disposal site on the Rotherwas industrial estate. To put it bluntly, I was flabbergasted. Imagine the carbon footprint that would be created if each and every one of us took this advice and drove to Rotherwas every time we had a couple of these tiny little batteries to dispose of.

Assuming that the staff at Garrick House are not the experts, I then emailed the waste management department of the council with the same query. A very kind lady telephoned me back and advised me to do the same thing (even though I had included my concern about the large size of the carbon footprint versus the tiny size of the battery - and the fact that I don't have use of a car during the week - neither do lots of other people). I told her that her advice was ludicrous and rang off.

But this is not a complaint to the council - no, it is actually a challenge. We rate-payers pay for the council and its staff, so I do not intend doing their job for them, but it is not rocket science' to come up with a solution. Here are a few suggestions that they might like to consider: l Provide a used battery disposal facility alongside the paper, glass, etc recycling bins around the city l Provide a used battery disposal facility at Garrick House l Include used battery disposal along with the recycling services as part of the regular waste collection service (that wouldn't help me, but it would at least cover the majority of the population) l Make it compulsory for all shops that sell batteries to receive used ones in exchange (not sure if the council has the power to do this though) If the council would like to speak to me on this matter, I would be happy to meet with their representative.

Jimmy Bates, Cedar Court, Folly Lane, Hereford.