Five thousand plastic bags and a garbage sorting station in front of every house!
For this I thank the forward-thinking mayor and councillors we elected and pay to make wise decisions that are best for us all. I welcomed blue box pickup of recyclables at the curb until I learned the city will not take recyclables from a blue box, but in fact you must purchase blue plastic bags and package up your recyclables or they leave them in front of your house. Think of it: at least 5,000 additional plastic bags are required in St. Albert every week. The man from Glad must be very pleased with this decision.
Now the wise men and women at city hall have had another brainwave. They are forcing all St. Albertans to purchase special containers (via special tax, or is it a fee?) to be used only for organic waste. The city also will purchase special trucks to pick up these special containers. Oh wait, I mulch my grass, so now every week the city will send out this new special truck to lift my special container containing some potato skins, some chicken bones, a few orange peels and a couple of apple cores! For this we need huge trucks with mechanical lifts?
These special containers now need a place to reside alongside my normal household waste container which will hold pizza boxes, empty plastic bags and some emptied Styrofoam meat trays, and my blue boxes that hold my special blue recyclable bags. So now each household needs a garbage recycling station. This may work fine in communities with back alleys to allow garbage containers to be hidden behind fences, but here in St. Albert with front drives and front garages we may soon see these garbage sorting stations in front every house. I for one refuse to park my car outside when I cannot make room inside my garage for a garbage sorting station.
I cannot wait to watch the convoy of three diesel-fume belching, hydraulic fluid dripping garbage trucks manoeuvring around each other to turn around in my cul-de-sac every week or two. All of this for the ecosystem!
I thank our fearless leaders for these wise decisions to pursue the greening of St. Albert at any cost.
Jim Rossmann, St. Albert
