Editor: I have a few issues with the new garbage collection program that began in Langley City on Jan. 2.
It is only for single-family residential homes. Does this council not realize that there are more and more apartment buildings and condos going up in the City these days? Why shouldn’t these property owners also be responsible for recycling and having limits put on how much they can put out each week?
The condos and apartment buildings contain far more people per square foot than those of single-family dwellings. If they were included in the recycling plans, think of the huge reduction in the amount of garbage that hits our landfill.
When Langley City first began its recycling program, I decided I really did not want to continue carting boxes and boxes of old newspapers to the curb every week, nor did I want to recycle household bills or other items that contain my personal information. Thus, I cancelled all newspaper delivery to my home and contacted all my creditors and informed them to bill me via email each month, thus reducing the amount of paper coming into my home.
Now with the new Green Can program that is being implemented, I am to discard the recyclable eco-friendly clear plastic bags that I have purchased specifically for my yard waste, as they are no longer acceptable. I am to use my non-existent newspapers to wrap kitchen scraps and place them into a separate bin purchased especially for this purpose.
Don’t forget to also come down to city hall and pick up a brand-new sticker to place on said Green Can and ensure it is facing outwards to the street, because we can’t ask a garbage man to have to make any effort to actually look at the cans to see which are for which program.
Because of this Green Can program, single-family residences have now had their regular garbage collection limits cut in half. According to Mayor Peter Fassbender’s letter our “kitchen food scraps and yard green waste make up from 30 to 40 per cent of our household garbage.”
That does not add up. But anyone requiring extra garbage pick-up can purchase stickers to use for the extra bags that they may have, on a regular and ongoing basis. How magnanimous of you. Increasing the single-family residences’ costs, while reducing the services you provide. Good job.
A single-family home resident pays far higher property taxes than a condo owner does, yet a condo owner has clear access to a great big bin for any and all their garbage and recyclables and kitchen waste, without limitations.
Per square foot, condo owners produce far more waste than a single-family residence.
If one City lot contains the footprint for four condos and the building is four storeys high, that would make 16 families living in a space that normally houses one single-family residence. Given averages, and the usual smaller size of a condo-occupying family, let’s be generous. This same condo footprint is producing just 10 times the amount of garbage that a single-family residence is producing.
In addition, they don’t have any restrictions on the amount or types of garbage they can throw out. Maybe they even have a private company picking up their refuse, rather than the City-hired company. It matters not. They are still contributing to the final tally allowable for this City, and the single-family residences are suffering restrictions because the condo owners have none at all.
Not only has the amount of garbage allowable been cut in half, but we are now only getting it picked up half the time. Garbage stinks and it attracts vermin and other wildlife, thus this new program is going to increase these issues for single-family residences. We are going to have higher numbers of rats, raccoons and wild cats getting into our stinking rotten garbage in our yards. and you can’t tell me that just because kitchen refuse is going into a different can which is picked up every week, this problem won’t occur.
Items such as tinfoil from a barbecue, containers with remnants of food still in them that are not recyclable, pet refuse, and the like are going to be sitting around in our yards for twice as long.
I have to wonder if this is worth all that effort. Or should homeowners just say forget it and go live in a condo.
Rae-Lynne Dicks,
Langley City
