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Cost will negate any benefit to waste collection

Reader disheartened about Town of Sidney’s decision to begin the collection of separated kitchen and other organic waste

I am totally disheartened about the Town of Sidney’s decision to begin the collection of separated kitchen and other organic waste, as of January 2014.

As a professional gardener of 40 years I have always kept a  working compost, into which I  religiously place these items.  I was taught as a child the  extreme value of replenishing the earth in this way, in order to maintain a healthy garden, be it flowers or vegetables. The  plant material receives all the nutrients it needs, and there is the added bonus of moisture retention  from the humus derived from the decomposed plant matter.

This of course translates to less  (unnatural) reliance on chemicals to feed our gardens, as well as the  conservation of water, which is of course  among our current environmental concerns.

I can understand how this proposal might be acceptable/beneficial for those living in apartments (strata or otherwise) but as one of thousands of gardening enthusiasts/home owners here in the Capital Regional District (CRD) region, I vehemently object to this course of action.

As a retired person on a fixed income  I will be expected to contribute an additional $56 per year in my already skyrocketing taxes for a pick up service that  I will not be using.

We should be encouraging people with backyards to compost at home instead of penalizing them.

The costs of manufacturing plastic pick up containers to house this material, along with the added emissions to the environment (produced in trucking it to a special facility) coupled with the exorbitant wages of municipal employees hired to manage plant material that is quite capable of decomposing itself (on site) will negate any benefits to the community.

To add insult to injury, citizens will then have to pay a hefty fee to truck it all back to them, to fertilize their gardens once it has been processed.

Could this be why councillor Lougher-Goodey did not vote yes on the proposal?

Another laughable, autocratic solution at best. If only I weren’t so disgusted!

Chris Brown

Sidney