Dear editor,

I would like to raise my concerns about plastic packaging. This packaging is everywhere – bread, meat, fruit, crisps, takeaways, flowers, deliveries, the list is endless. Manufacturers, shops and takeaways need to stop using plastic packaging before it’s too late.

We dispose of this plastic by dumping it in our bins or worse on other people’s farms like we experienced two years ago. While flimsy plastic that covers fruit, biscuits and flowers cannot yet be recycled, hard plastics like trays from meat, shampoo bottles, milk cartons and soup containers can be as long as they are washed out well.

The problem is most people will not wash them out, throwing them straight into the rubbish or even recycling bin. This way they can’t be recycled. Our problem is that plastic doesn’t decompose, meaning that too much of the world’s plastic is out in landfill or blowing around the place which could get entangled with animals hurting them or even killing them, with alarming amounts ending up in our oceans. Governments need to employ some sort of pressure on manufacturers to lessen the use of plastic. But here are some small things we can do to help

1. Try to buy things with less plastic like loose fruit etc.

2. Wash out hard plastic and recycle it.

3. Use less cling film and plastic bags.

4. If you need to use plastic bags, get some good ziplock ones and wash them after each use and reuse them.

5. Whenever you have the option to choose how a product is wrapped, eg paper bag versus plastic, choose the paper.

If we all play our part, we can help to protect the planet for future generations.

Dear editor,

Me and my brother Rhys ask my daddy lots of questions about farming all the time. We love learning about the cows and calves, machinery and grass. We also love learning about the nature on the farm.

We think it’d be a good idea to answer some of those questions in your paper because it would be very interesting and give my daddy a bit of a break.