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High cost of garbage

Letters

Editor:

About a year ago I used to buy my garbage tickets at $2 each. About every five weeks I had collected enough garbage to put out at the curb. Then Direct Disposal sold out to Waste Management. All of a sudden I had to buy my garbage tickets for $4. I still collected my waste till I had enough to merit putting it out. Then last summer we were told that whether we needed to put our garbage out or not, we would now be paying $4 every week. And would be facing a substantial rise in our taxes.

I live in a seniors mobile home park, and several people used to collect their waste and share a bin. We are now instructed to use our own bin and whether we need to or not, we all pay that $4 every week. Yet we have been urged to reduce, reuse and recycle, to buy less and to always be aware of the cost to the environment as a result of too much waste. Out of curiosity, since these new rules have been laid down, I have started to weigh my “weekly offerings.” In the past eight weeks, my total output amounts to a staggering 6.717 kilos. Or about 0.839 per week. Needless to say, my bin weighs more.

In this park I am not alone. Seniors who live on a low income are at risk simply because of the fact that everything costs more. Making a profit is an integral part of our economy. But there must come a time when seniors feel just a tad more understood and, dare I say, appreciated at least to the point where some thought is put into the various schemes to make a profit.

I cannot see how buying tickets is any more labour intensive to the corporation involved. It is a simple solution, and at least we would be able to pay per use. The biggest households in here have two people, most are single occupancy, all are seniors. Think about it.

Susan Towers, Sechelt