Letters to the Editor

Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION

Not too late to rethink new trash policy

By: Uncredited

Wednesday, Sep. 19, 2012 | Comments: 0

The new policy on trash pickup and recycling scheduled to go into effect on Oct. 1 (Brandon Sun, Sept. 8) urgently requires reconsideration, specifically with respect to the requirement that bins be removed from back lanes between pickup days. The reasons for this major change are inadequate when compared to the hardships they will involve for many residents.

Consider the fact that homes with back lanes usually have fences and/or hedges along their backyards with gates (if they have them) often unable to allow passage of these bins. Consider that if the yards have garages as well, they are often too small to allow storage of the bins in or in front of them. Consider that back lanes tend to collect snow in the winter, that snow plowing is irregular, and that the bins are poorly designed to move over snow and ice. Consider that plowing results in ridges of packed snow along the lanes impeding moving the bins behind then for pickup (which has to be done since lanes are too narrow to leave them in front). Consider also that even if the homeowners manage to solve these problems, they may very well consider moving two bins every week too much work in winter and return to placing all of their trash in one, giving up recycling altogether.

One of the reasons back lanes exist has been to provide space for trash containers out of sight of streets, and this has always been one of their many advantages. The present bins have some problems, as did the far more user-friendly dumpsters before them, and the garbage pails before this, but this is no excuse to saddle homeowners with unreasonable demands.

There are simpler solutions. For instance, if the main problem with leaving the bins in place is that the pickup trucks cannot identify empty or near-empty containers, this can be easily solved by requesting homeowners turn the bins sideways until ready for pickup.

CATHERINE J.M. BROCKWAY

Brandon

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition September 19, 2012

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