Dear editor,
I very much appreciate the publication of ideas from your readership regarding local issues.
The letters are among the first pages that I read of the papers.
Recently there has been some news about the problems associated with closures that have happened of sites where recycling bins were located on private property. There also seems to be no real solution to where to put up new recycling sites with proposals coming out that are obviously too far away for most people.
It seems to me that the logical solution is to place them on public property to avoid such difficulties. One possibility might be to locate them at school parking lots where the idea or minimizing waste could be incorporated into the study programs, teaching the next generation how bad some of our packaging materials are and encouraging them to think about ways to ensure that the problems can be overcome.
By exposing young minds to the idea of eliminating, or at least reducing the amount of material that goes into solid waste dump sites, we can do much good. They might even come up with the idea to initiate a referendum to get rid of Styrofoam and plastic containers altogether from Vancouver Island and to figure out how to dispose of those new mini fluorescent bulbs with the built-in mercury.
Programs like that are already in effect in some school programs perhaps initiated by students and the Parent Advisory Committees.
I cite as an example the wonderful work that is being done by the Lake Trail Community program, which is showing all of us, not only the students, how to improve our own lives by growing some of our vegetables and utilizing composted material.
David Netterville,
Area C