THE sight of litter besmirching our streets and our over-flowing litter bins is truly depressing (Letters, January 10 & 11). As an Edinburgh Festival voluntary guide, I know from comments made by visitors to the city the very poor impression of Scotland that this is making. And yet apart from routine hand-wringing, what are we actually doing about this problem?

My wife and I have just returned from a visit to Japan to spend Christmas with our family – both of our sons live and work in Tokyo. The contrast in the amount of litter to be seen on the streets of Tokyo is quite remarkable. Indeed rather than being struck by the absence of litter, it is the shock when you actually encounter a piece of litter that impresses you. (Interestingly the Japanese blame visitors for the little litter that is to be seen.)

So in a city of some 30 million residents, how is this achieved? It certainly is not by the presence of hundreds of litter bins. They are conspicuous by their absence. Practically the only litter bins to be seen are located outside convenience stores. And these are special bins for recycling. It is really a cultural issue. From the earliest years, the Japanese are educated into seeing litter as something shameful; littering is an action that is anti-social and absolutely unacceptable. The cultivation of this attitude rests very much with parents. It is strongly reinforced at school. Our grand-daughter in Primary 1 shares in the cleaning of her own classroom and the school playground. These communal tasks will continue to be carried out by students until the end of high school. Japanese people go out prepared to deal with any litter that they generate. They will carry plastic bags which will then be taken home for recycling. (Significantly rubbish is collected twice weekly in Tokyo.) Simply throwing rubbish away in the streets and parks is just unthinkable for them.

A visit to a cinema here is not for the faint-hearted. People enter the cinema laden with food and drink which they proceed to consume, sometimes very noisily. At the end of the film, the amount of discarded rubbish littering the cinema is disgusting. What a contrast with our experience in Tokyo when we went to see the new Star Wars film. People bought the same snacks and the same amount of food and drink but they were served their purchases in individual plastic trays with special slots to hold the food and drinks purchased. Without exception at the end of the film, these trays were used to hold the empty packaging and uneaten food and returned to staff standing at the cinema exit doors who tipped the rubbish into containers and collected the trays for recycling. There was no rubbish at all left in the cinema itself. There is a strong message here as to what as a society the Japanese are prepared to accept regarding the responsible disposal of rubbish. What a contrast with what happens here. We just tolerate and indeed seem to condone an attitude that is so depressing. As a retired teacher I know that schools do try encourage good habits in relation to litter. But our young people are simply let down by adult society. We have to do better than this.

Eric Melvin,

6 Cluny Place, Edinburgh.

OUR grandchildren live in an inner suburb of Zurich. There are trams, buses, trolley buses and cars, but they are expected to go to and from school unaccompanied. Parents walking their children to school would get a letter from the council saying it is not acceptable. It is seen as an important part of their growing independence. They all wear hi-vis straps. And yes, like their German counterparts, from pre-school days, they make fires in the forest and cook sausages.

Last year we went with them to a council-run tree nursery on the outskirts of the city, to choose and cut down our own Christmas tree. There were scores of families there and we were provided with saws of every size and type which were left in large boxes for us to make our choice. We then made our way back to the city on a tram which seemed to have more trees than people.

Fiona Black,

101 Lothian Crescent, Stirling.

AM I being unduly cynical at the support from retailers for compulsory plastic bag charging? Apart from the few companies who claim to donate this income to charity, the rest will be laughing their way to the bank. More to the point would be allow customers to use the empty cardboard boxes in which products have been delivered to the shop. My local supermarket used to have piles of these freely available at the checkout and plastic bag use was minimal as a result. Nowadays, these have to be disposed of by retailers at vast cost – surely far better for them to be taken home and disposed of by customers as domestic waste at no cost to traders?

John Hein,

78 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh.

KEN Gow's suggestion of using high tech scanners on dropped litter (Letters, January 10) seems a good idea. Unfortunately there were no bar codes on the runny egg roll that was discarded from a van I was overtaking recently. Egg on your windscreen is difficult to clean off with your screenwashers whilst driving.

Alistair Moss,

Deanston Gardens, Doune, Perthshire.

WE are told the Scottish Government is “going out to consultation” on a plastic cotton bud ban. The first known case of unwanted rubbish creating more unwanted rubbish. Just do it.

John Dunlop,

19 Wellington Lane, Ayr.