Editor:
Open letter to Janine Dougall, Director of Environmental Services for the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako
I stopped by the transfer station on Friday to drop off a few things, backed up to the garbage drop, and I was surprised to see this pile of washed folded blankets on top of the garbage.
I asked the attendant if I could take the blankets home for the dogs’ houses. No, he said, they were contaminated.
I asked what they were doing in there in the first place. The attendant said the re-use shed attendant had put them in there and if I didn’t like their policy I could take my garbage somewhere else.
Ironic a tax-funded employee telling the taxpayer to take their garbage somewhere else. So I asked the re-use shed attendant what the perfectly good blankets were doing in the garbage, he said that they were not allowed to take bedding, mattresses, furniture etc., because they didn’t know where they had been.
So I asked the attendant if he was going to throw away the stuff I had just dropped off because he didn’t know where that had been either, of course I didn’t get an answer and now I don’t want to drop anything off anymore because I don’t know if it’s going to end up in the garbage. I’m sure the person who washed, folded and dropped off those beautiful blankets was not aware of that either and now the question begs to be asked, what other perfectly good stuff is going in to the garbage?
I used to pick up vintage pieces of furniture and restore them, you know, the type that was made to last forever, that could be repaired and re-upholstered over and over again, that you could pass down to your grandchildren.
The re-use shed used to be a gold mine for the quality products that were once manufactured in North America and now it’s a few kitchen goods from China, you know, stuff that falls apart before it’s paid for, that ends up in the landfill because it can’t be fixed.
No wonder there is nothing good to be found in the re-use shed any longer. The regional district was obviously not listening to the public during the consultation, which seems to be the norm for government, their policies on re-cycling are not keeping perfectly recyclable stuff out of the landfill.
On the contrary, they have increased the amount of stuff that now goes into the landfill and I believe that’s missing the whole point.
I don’t want to hear how it’s for our health and safety. The re-use shed/transfer station belongs to the taxpayer and we should be the ones who determine what goes in and what doesn’t.
From now on before anyone drops things off for the re-use shed, I would suggest that you ask first or it might end up in the garbage.
From a recycler of 36 years,
Colleen Simmons