Dear Editor,

Why do taxpayers spend so much time sorting recyclables from garbage when often, on behalf of Langley, Sierra Waste will not take plastic wrap (or styrofoam) but will take hard plastics?

Last collection my whole blue bin was left because of some plastic wrap was on top. Everything below – cans, metal containers, plastic vials, etc. were all left.

Seems to me that the Township should be doing some sorting and they – Sierra Waste – should help with the sorting.

Why hard plastics are accepted yet plastic wrap and styrofoam are not is beyond my comprehension. If, as they say, the thin file messes with recycling equipment, maybe it’s time to change the equipment.

Otherwise, the average taxpayer will merely put what is not picked up in with the garbage. To expect each household to deliver their non-recyclables such as is mentioned, along with paint cans – empty or not – to a special recycling depot is not only unrealistic, but environmentally very unfriendly considering the amount of pollution by the respective automobiles. Compare the much smaller pollution caused by one large container.

It makes no sense to penalize the consumer for using plastic wrap, styrofoam et al. when it should be the manufacturer that should shoulder this burden. Levies are not working, so why do the law-makers not require plastics manufacturers and distributers to find some other forms of wrap and packaging materials?

Enough already! Why always must the individual taxpayers be burdened while Corporate Canada and Corporate America et al. get off scot free?

Gordon Mathison, Walnut Grove

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• READ MORE: B.C. makes it easier for municipalities to ban single-use plastics

• READ MORE: Township ups fines for not separating garbage, recycling

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