Today’s letters: Talking about trash, the Mark Norman settlement, OSAP
I’m a board member of a large townhouse condominium complex. Our garbage goes on large communal pads for pickup by the city. There is no way to police who puts what where, and we already have problems with household waste put out on the wrong week, as well as improper recycling. The private citizens of the condo bear the cost to keep on top of these matters.
If a bag limit is imposed on everyone, piles of garbage would be left on-site once the limit had been loaded in the trucks, leaving the condo with no route of disposal. Waiving residential setups such as ours from a bag limit would result in non-resident dumping on our property.
We already see this with renovation materials, and the dumpsters beside our local strip mall are used illegally as well. Rural residents will see garbage dumped on their property (if they don’t already). Should Ottawa proceed with a universal bag limit, I strongly urge all the townhouse condominiums in Ottawa to band together to protest this at City Hall.
Leslie Brown, Gloucester
Pay-per-bag is a bad idea too
To institute a pay-per-bag system is a horrible idea. Some people will avoid the fee by doing the “midnight garbage bag toss.”
We live on a well-travelled rural road and we already have a steady stream of Tim Hortons, McDonald’s and beverage container trash. Sometimes we have a pile of tires from someone who didn’t want to pay the recycle fee, or garbage bags from someone who missed garbage day.
We have recycled from the beginning, kitchen waste being the largest contribution. There are still neighbours who have never used the green bin.
Bryan Kallio, Cumberland Village
How about a wider strategy?
I am glad to see the city moving forward to update its solid waste master plan but disappointed that there doesn’t seem to be any attention paid to discussion of strategies:
• to get better compliance from owners and residents in multi-dwelling and commercial high-rise buildings, which appear largely resistant to recycling and other waste management practices;
• that might be effective with hospital and other health care facilities, the food industry and other sectors likely to be hard hit by decisions about single-use plastics; and
• that feature rewarding (deposits) versus punitive approaches (extra charges for exceeding household waste limits) and don’t create another layer of bureaucratic work.
Finally, much of this pales against the challenge of shifting packaging practices at all points along the production-and-use chain of food, health care and other products.
As an example, a person needing weekly infusions that are self-administered at home saves resources in the health system but generates considerable waste, including an amazing amount of packaging (much of it single-use plastic) and biohazard waste, which can be managed by pharmacies but still adds a basketful of non-recyclable waste each week.
Finding the best practices in the field of waste management, promoting awareness of them and encouraging supportive strategies could help reduce waste further. So would strategies to support residents in the process of moving from residence to residence which often generates waste far in excess of usual household limits.
Linda Murphy, Ottawa
