Dear editor,
I must take issue with your latest rant in favour of Meaford’s garbage bag tag system (The 3Rs…Rants, Raves & Rumours, October 6, 2022 print edition). In theory, as you point out, it is supposed to foster a user pay system and create an incentive for recycling/composting. In practice, however, it only creates an incentive for residents to opt out of the bag tag tax by chucking their garbage into woodlots and rural ditches, burning it in backyards, or stuffing it into one of the town’s scarce outdoor garbage receptacles. I’m sure the town’s businesses are also receiving a lot of illicit residential garbage in their dumpsters and outdoor bins.
I wish I had snapped a picture of one fenced-off area at the harbour this spring that acted as an impromptu dump for household garbage all winter. Disgusting. And yet, do you believe a single tenant living in Meaford should put a $4 bag tag on one small bag of garbage every two weeks? They don’t, and neither do I – especially when their landlord should be paying for trash collection through property taxes. Then what do you think happens to that bag? Everyone generates garbage in varying amounts throughout the year, and everyone needs it picked up, so why should the amount of garbage at the curb matter? A user pay system is not important to garbage collection, like the vast majority of other public services.
You say the end goal is to have the cost of disposing of trash fully removed from our property taxes. I believe the end goal should be a clean town and municipality, which we currently do not have. We should be making it as easy as possible for everyone to dispose of trash through the proper channels so it ends up where it’s supposed to go. An excellent waste management system is worth paying for through property taxes, and that system should include many, many more outdoor public garbage receptacles across town for litter items and dog poop. Incoming council, please trash our senseless garbage bag tag system and give Meaford the comprehensive waste management system we need to keep the municipality clean.
Charles Killin, Meaford
