An open letter to Environment Minister Mary Polak about recycling bins and MMBC.
I cannot tell you just how angry I am about this new system, as are my friends and neighbours. No one I have spoken to is in favour of it.
I received the two blue boxes. They are so heavy that I will never be able to carry them when filled.
I am 76-years-old.
How am I going to get them down the eight concrete steps to the sidewalk in good weather, never mind at 7 a.m. in the winter with the snow and ice?
How am I going to keep the rain and snow out of them? And I’m also supposed to carry rocks around in order to keep the material from flying out of the boxes? You must be joking. Where am I going to store these huge boxes?
I do not have a vehicle. I keep glass bottles in a small box until a friend takes me to a bottle depot.
Now, because you will not accept some of the plastics that we are already recycling very nicely, I have to find a place to store plastics as well, until I can also take them to a depot.
The blue bags worked perfectly. I could carry the bag, sometimes with difficulty, but at worst I could drag it. The material was kept clean and dry.
I could set out as many bags as I had recycling material to fill. The sidewalks were never littered with recycling material, as they certainly will be with the new system.
Please do not send me a form letter explaining all the good reasons why you’ve arbitrarily implemented this dumb idea.
If you do contact me, please let it be to advise me that the blue boxes have been recycled in favour of a return to blue bags, and that you will be accepting the plastics as well.
Here is the bottom line: I cannot carry the blue boxes with anything in them, so I will not be using them. Neither will my senior or disabled friends.
You have effectively shut down recycling for us and we will certainly all remember this come election time.
Thank you for your attention.
Jean Collier
Vernon
