Dear Editor,
The dumping of plastic bottles, bags, aluminium cans and other debris on our streets, sidewalks, parks and waterways has been a growing concern as the environment continues to be degraded at an alarming rate. There has been a lot of rhetoric on the subject by our public officials, and the city even has a bye-law to prosecute offenders, but there has been no visible impact to cause the citizenry to act responsibly because of lack of enforcement.
As the problem continues to escalate it is time for the state to pass legislation which would be easily enforceable to arrest the degradation of our communities. Firstly, all empty bottles (glass, plastic), aluminium cans could be returned to shops where the items are sold and a fee (say $5) paid for each returnable – no question asked as the law will require them to do so. This fee could be applied up-front as a cost on the items sold by the shops so there is no transaction loss to the merchants. However, any shop selling say Coca Cola must accept Coca Cola empties irrespective of which shop they were bought from in the first instance, and no proof of their purchase should be required. Next, householders should be required to sort out their garbage before collection to allow for the separation of plastics and cans for re-cycling.
The shops can then arrange to have the empties collected by a recycling centre which would make its money recycling the plastics and aluminium cans as the demand is there for them. With respect to plastic bags, a fee should be charged for them up-front if the user does not provide his/her container when a purchase is made. The charge levied for the bag will hit the potential litterer in his/her wallet and encourage conservation. The return policy will have additional positive effects. Firstly, it will assist greatly to clean-up the environment and secondly it could provide meaningful activity for the unemployed and homeless as they vie with each other with shopping carts (provided by friends of the environment) in their hands to rid the streets and waterways of those carelessly dumped cans and bottles and in the process receive deserving rewards for their efforts at the nearest return shop.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
