The bad effects of straws in waterways and the ocean should be well known by now.

We don't have to wait, we can start by just saying no to straws in our drinks and encouraging pubs and the like to supply paper ones.

It's easy to find bins stuffed full of rubbish on any day of the week and it makes you think we have a long way to go in reducing our rubbish pile.

But really it's not that hard.

By the time we stop buying products encased in layers of plastic, then recycle or reuse what we have left, you end up with not that much for the bin.

Give it a try and you'll be surprised at the results. Also, what about getting a keep cup for your coffee, there are some great designs out there.

Oh, and by the way, when recycling bottles take the tops off they are not recyclable.

Don't forget it's plastic-free July this month so let's have a real go at limiting our plastic use and you never know it might become a habit worth following.

CONGRATULATIONS Ian Goninon for bringing some sort of sanity to the proposed 4.38 per cent rate rise in the Northern Midlands.

Cr Goninon reduced the rise to 3.1 per cent after a huge battle with fellow councillors, even that being far beyond the CPI and all the adjacent municipalities.

In today's tough times, ratepayers cannot afford these huge increases.

Perhaps the council should rethink their budget, and especially look at how the sports complex revamp has gone over budget, and perhaps we do not need those crash tree sites in the middle of Smith Street.

Please, councillors show some restraint for the sake of us ratepayers.

WHEN the residents of Henty House move to their new premises at the old C.H. Smith site perhaps the former could be turned into a hotel, thus negating the need for the massive new Gorge Hotel, depictions of which in the media are misleading, to say the least.

As I understand it, the podium would be the same height as the nearby Launceston College, with the tower a further 20 metres higher still; dwarfing its neighbours and thus completely out of place.

I READ that new car sales are way down, not just in Tasmania but throughout Australia.

With the Morrison Government doing its best to create a new generation of working poor it's no surprise.

Mortgages, food and power bills have to come first and any luxury products, not just cars, have to come a poor second.

AFTER reading Dr Mary McMillan's opinion on Roundup/glyphosate (The Examiner, June 18), I can only urge your readers to get a copy of Carey Gillams' Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science (2017, Island Press) and make up their own minds.

I seem to remember a lot of soothing opinions about asbestos, thalidomide, D.D.T., tobacco, dioxins (aka agent orange), not to mention climate change.

The list just goes on.

And how much Roundup exposure exactly is associated with "an exceptionally small risk of cancer"?

As someone who has been through the trauma of cancer, I would strongly urge householders, councils, forestry workers and farmers to err on the side of caution and review their reliance on Roundup as a weed killer.

WHEN will the AFL recognise that most football clubs across the nation are struggling or have a terminal noose of insufficient funds, players, officials and are dying.

The Band-Aid fix of forcing clubs to amalgamate is not in keeping with supporting the whole reason for a clubs existence.

A whole new approach to grassroots football by the AFL whereby football clubs can connect with an AFL Sustain and Develop Department.

A paper audit completed by clubs and sent to the AFL would be a starting point, AFL meeting with clubs for a first-hand look of each club.

Yes, it would require a new input but it would be a positive start. Too many clubs are just hanging on by a thread.

Yep, and if working people fight to keep their standard of living, other working people condemn them for it and call them greedy. Rich getting richer, the gap growing.

When was your last pay rise? Are you better off now than you were five years ago? Are we more competitive?

Is your employment more secure? Are things cheaper? Are bills easier to pay?

Wake up people, for God's sake.

We go crook about elected government's (either side) but elect the exact same people back in or don't even bother voting at all?

Oh, that's right, there are cranes in Hobart and roadworks on the Midland Highway, the economy must be booming.

Tell that to retailers in Launceston, no disposable income means no flow on effect.

Can't fix stupid.