‘The toothpaste companies seduce us into using about 10 times what is required’

• TO your correspondent David Douglas (It’s the same old same old with the letters, January 19), I do not “write in most weeks”.

I make it about 15 letters in the last three years. Sorry to disappoint you. And if you don’t like letters from the usual suspects, write some better ones of your own instead of moaning.

Just to irritate you yet again, I have one more tip for a greener 2023 (sorry, “to tell you how to live”). It may seem trivial but it illustrates perfectly the ways in which we are misled into polluting the planet and using up its resources.

Ever since I was a child in the 1950s I’ve watched adverts which cover the toothbrush with toothpaste. Actually I’ve found that I only need a tiny amount to do the job. The toothpaste companies seduce us into using about 10 times what is required. Try it and see.

NIGEL ARMISTEAD, NW5