Waste Management Letter

Street number and name

City, Province, Postal Code

January, 2010

Halifax Regional Municipality

Street number and name

City, Province, Postal Code

Dear Council Member:

I wanted to express my concern over HRM considering a possible bylaw change to our waste management services. Reducing the number of garbage bags allowed per household, as well as only allowing the use of clear garbage bags, will cause many challenges. Here are my concerns:

• Many families already struggle with the six bag limit because they have larger families, or because of circumstance (renovations, spring cleaning, moving, children in diapers etc).

• When companies manufacture products they produce a lot of packaging that is not recyclable or compostable. Would you be ensuring that these companies reduce their packaging?   

• As for using clear bags, this would result in waste management employees leaving many bags on the curb because they would find many bags that do not meet the requirements.

• To go along with that, how would waste management employees know whether a plastic container or bag is actually recyclable? We are only able to recycle certain types of plastic, but it is difficult to tell visually which ones are recyclable.

• When it comes to compostable material some households have advantages. Living in a condominium or apartment building can make it almost impossible to compost. Many buildings only have one or two larger green bins although hundreds of tenants may live in the building. The bins are always full, so where are residents expected to put their compost if not in the garbage? Even if they use clear bags there are not always facilities to house all of those bags.

I feel that there should be more public input on this matter before a final decision is made. What is your position on the issues of clear garbage bags and reducing the number of allowable garbage bags?

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Angela