SIR - I write in response to Mr Thomson's letter (March 5), which expressed concern about a difficulty in recycling Tetra Pak cartons.

Made from a mix of paperboard, polyethylene and 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 lag well behind.

Over the past year I've been working with local authorities, community recycling groups and retailers to boost the UK's carton recycling rates. The number of carton collection schemes has increased from 30 to 100 and Tetra Pak has committed to ensuring there will be a national coverage of carton collection by the end of next year.

To make this happen, the UK carton industry has put £1.5million into a recycling fund, available to help local authorities interested in starting up carton collection schemes in their area. 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'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.

Nick Mann, National Recycling Officer, Tetra Pak UK