My bad hip means I have rarely got to George Street at opening time and, these days, I seek out the more comfortable benches on the seafront.

However, an appointment took me there on a recent morning and I was astonished to find half a dozen dustcarts behind one another.

How can a small street contain so much rubbish? Closer inspection revealed each truck belonged to a different firm and each collected rubbish according to the colour of the bag.

Traders choose the company whose services they prefer, which, potentially, means one dustcart could join the queue and wait to collect rubbish from one shop at the south end.

Not only does this daily parade of belching vehicles show Brighton and Hove City Council has scant regard for the environment, it also sits oddly with non-business residents being told which single firm will collect their rubbish.

While there, I was told, in pristine Polegate all residents put different types of rubbish into separate bags, a simple system which readily facilitates recycling processes.

Why doesn't this man Bodfish allow that here? Plainly he couldn't care less - he just wants to bung it in the back for crushing and burning.

-Charles Goode, Third Avenue, Hove