IT would be nice if we could all just wash our hands of our rubbish.

Sadly, the waste mountains we produce through our irresponsible consumer lifestyles can't be disposed of so easily.

When City of York Council introduced its controversial "alternate" rubbish collections in October 2005, this newspaper opposed the move.

We understood that the system of collecting garden waste one week, and household rubbish the next, was an attempt to reduce the amount of trash buried in landfill.

But we were worried that only collecting rubbish once a fortnight would lead to overflowing bins, smells, filth, vermin and a health hazard.

We launched the Bin It! campaign calling for a return to weekly collections. Thousands of York people backed us, but the council would not listen.

Now the Government has released new research, which claims to show that fortnightly collections do not constitute a health hazard.

Provided waste is "properly wrapped", there should be no hygiene problems, it says.

We're still not entirely convinced.

Leaving rotting meat in a bin in your back garden in the heat of summer for two weeks can't be good, even if it is "properly wrapped".

Admittedly, there do not seem to have been any health scares so far as a result of the fortnightly collections.

We hope that continues to be the case.

But while we must all learn to reduce the amount of rubbish we produce, it would have been nice if the council had tried harder to persuade us, rather than forcing us by effectively halving the number of rubbish collections.