I personally do not agree with limiting garbage to 3 items for the following reasons:
I feel like we’ve been hearing about the landfill getting full for the past 15 years. The fact it’s getting full, does not mean garbage simply disappears into thin air. If it did, I would not have a problem but garbage still exists whether we have room for it or not. The city continues to grow meaning more homes with more garbage, yet as a City, it doesn’t appear we’ve addressed this issue beyond reducing pickup followed by reducing the number of items. I believe my tax dollars should first be going to support things like safe, affordable water, infrastructure including things like snow removal and garbage collection. I suspect the City spends a fair amount of money on things that are “nice to have” but these expenses should not take away for spending on items that are “must haves”. Also, it’s only those of us with a private driveway that face this limit because you can see it.
When the city was proposing putting this 3 item limit in place (on the heels of limiting pickup to every two weeks) the messaging was always that it should not be a problem because most people are only putting out 1 or 2 items. If that is true, then the law of averages tells me there should not be a problem if the minority place more than 3 bags. Not everything can be recycled and I don’t bring my junk to a thrift store. Could I purchase 140 litre bins? I suppose I could, but I don’t have a lot of extra money to put towards purchasing garbage cans and the way cans are thrown around, I would not be too happy to have cans I paid for damaged. Being a senior, the weight is also an issue.
As an example of what frustrates me, I currently have 2 remaining lawn chairs from a set of 4 that are coming to the end of their life. Since I always have 2 bags of garbage, getting rid of these 2 lawn chairs will take a month because I can only put one out at a time. This kind of situation is ridiculous to me. Oh, it also just so happens the wheels fell off my lawn edger last week - broke off - can’t be fixed. It will be Halloween before I get rid of this stuff! I’m not saying I have excess garbage every week, but it’s just annoying when you can’t get rid of stuff when you want to.
In closing, I have 2 questions:
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Do you support current the 3 item limit?
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If you do support the 3 item limit, then as a compromise, would you support allowing extra items at the curb for a pickup in the spring, the fall and after Christmas?
Thank you for your time.
Linda