WHAT an environmental nightmare we create at Christmas.

Having done some Christmas shopping, including buying a tree, and lights and decorations for the tree, and then looking at what we have bought, I am horrified.

I am very sorry we bought what we did.

So much plastic and metallic material. So much so toxic and poisonous to the environment. For instance razor sharp metallic "hooks" to hang baubles on trees. Needle size and needle sharp, all will end in landfills.

And multiply this by hundreds of thousands in our area only and you begin to see the enormity of the problem. All dazzling and colourful filling the shops, but then much within the next year ending in our bins and landfills.

And not only this, the extremely poor quality of decorative products, toys, and so much more. Much barely usable, all part of our atrocious consume and throw-away culture.

For me high time we put on all products warning labels, as we do on tobacco, and sugar and salt content of food. Beware: this product is highly dangerous to the environment. And indeed highly dangerous if materials end up in the mouths of children, all the more of a risk at Christmas.

HELENA SCOTT

Yarmouth Road, Branksome