Dear Sir:
It was with displeasure that I made my most recent trip to the Thornhill garbage dump for household refuse disposal. As I was pulling my garbage out of my covered pickup truck, a young fellow with a radio, whom I saw there asked me if I had received a copy of the pamphlet being handed out at the entrance to the dump (I had not).
He told me that the two fluorescent tubes I had just thrown out could be recycled somewhere.
I told him that I would continue to recycle my occasional fluorescent tubes at the dump. I later found out that the dump was under new management and he was one of two employees there.
As I was leaving, this fellow’s partner showed up to give me a copy of the pamphlet that was being handed out. It lists 23 kinds of recyclable items and the 28 places in the Terrace area to take them.
If the regional district really wants to get on the recycling band wagon, they must create a recycling depot area (or two maybe) where virtually all of the recyclable materials can be brought to for a single drop point convenient enough that household members will use it.
The idea that an eastern Thornhill resident is going to have to go all the way to RONA to dispose of two fluorescent tubes is ludicrous.
So mine will go to the dump, and if I get chastised again for this, I will, in future, smash the tubes into little bits into a garbage bag of other household garbage and they will still go to the dump.
As for other household garbage, I use very few canned food items, other than pet food and most of these are aluminum cat food cans that I rinse out to prevent smell and flatten and store them for sale as scrap aluminum. A standard garbage can will hold a couple of years of them and at the current prices for scrap metals, it gives me a nice chunk of pocket money. If the recycling industry could find ways to put a value (to the household user) on recyclables then more people would be willing to recycle materials that now go to the dump. I “recycle” all of the drink containers I get at Encore Pacific or a Liquor outlet for a nice bi-monthly stipend. Incidently, liquor stores must not be considered as recycling points by RDKS, as they are not listed on the pamphlet.
Come on RDKS, get your head out of the sand and do something to promote recycling that will be more convenient and maybe profitable to use by householders.
Wilf Butters, Thornhill