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Big packagers and retailers should be part of recycling solution

Dear editor, It's ridiculous that municipal powers can’t legislate those who import the most packaging and recyclable materials.

Dear editor,

Maybe it’s just me, but I find it ridiculous that the municipal powers in Happy Valley can’t legislate or shame the stores and malls that import and produce the largest amount of packaging and recyclable materials into accepting and maintaining  onsite depots to deal with the mounds of crap they insist on selling along with their products.

I don’t fault the municipalities for pushing recycling. The results are amazing, as they have extended the life of the garbage dump, and got us all  (well, almost all) reducing the amount of material we throw out.

And I don’t fault the majority of citizens who have embraced the Three Rs — you only have to go south of the border to see how stupid people can still be with their garbage.

What I do fault is our so-called ‘corporate citizens’ who have rolled in like latter-day carpetbaggers to farm the wallets of our shoppers, but refuse to take responsibility for the amount of material they sell to their consumer drones.

Kudos to Home Depot for doing their part. Let’s see the rest of the malls and big box stores step up.  Corporate responsibility should not stop once the product has been sold.

Things might change quickly if consumers showed up for every shopping trip with a bag full of packaging and recyclables and just dropped them inside the entrance of their favorite stores.

Call it GOGI. Garbage Out, Garbage In.

Andy MacDougall,

Royston