Sir, – As a grandfather to six young children, I am pleased that the younger generations are thinking more often of our environment and how to protect it.
During this extended holiday period, as I shared daily living with my grandchildren, I noticed an extraordinary dependence of parents on wet-wipes. These wipes come in packets of 50-plus, and based on my unscientific observations, two or three children can account for more than a packet a day!
That’s a lot of landfill a day across the whole island.
Can I remind readers that in days of yore there were no wet-wipes and a single damp cloth dealt with a multitude of daily disasters and chores.
Without knowing it, we were doing a lot more for the environment in our daily chores than we could possibly have imagined.
If families returned to old-fashioned methods of dealing with the spills and ills of daily living, it would be a practical and potentially significant contribution to our planet’s long-term future. – Yours, etc,
EUGENE McMAHON,
Moycullen,
Galway.