Dear editor,
I assumed that the proposed biweekly garbage pick-up in Comox was more about saving the environment than saving money (because, yes, a household savings of $23/year is pretty lame).
Picking up the garbage and the recycling – on the same day – every two weeks saves both the route mileage plus the back-and-forth from the depot. And while the yard waste needs to be picked up weekly through the spring to fall, it too can be reduced to biweekly pick-up in the winter.
What the councillors and the planet are hoping for is that we will start recycling more. If the Town continues to limit the amount of garbage to one can per pick-up (even if pick-up is biweekly), this will encourage recycling since we can submit as many containers of recycling as we want.
As for the stinky garbage of food waste hanging around, there are various ways to deal with both the waste and the smell. The first thing is to buy less!
As for the smell of the garbage, you can keep all the compostable material in a four-litre bucket in the fridge freezer or you can use a special compost container to hold your throw-away fruits, vegetables and meats until you can compost them. If no compost, you can put it curbside in a special compost bin. I don’t even feel bad about throwing a bit of compostable food in the garbage because it breaks down and maybe will help the plastic bag break down a little sooner.
It is kind of fun to figure out how to save or reuse things. I’ve just talked about food, but you can make crafts and art and decor out of discarded materials.
Old George in Whitewood, Sask., made a whole wild-west Hidden Village out of, as he said, “garbage.” Check it out on Facebook or the TransCanada. His imagination will inspire you.
Judy Johnson
Comox