Paying for garbage won’t solve problem

We were given a blue bin for Lorass to pick up and charged on our water bill for that privilege. This was supposed to lessen the amount of garbage going to the landfill. We were told that the cost would save us from a new landfill and was a good idea.

I was already composting. I already took cans, paper, cardboard, metals, paint, chemicals to the various places to be recycled.

But I am getting older and I use oxygen, so a bin in the backyard seemed to be OK.

I found that much of what was put into the blue bin was really garbage. If it can’t be used in our area, it is only garbage.

It cost too much to ship down east.

Now city council wants to change the way we pay for garbage, because we still are sending too much stuff to the landfill.

To make it work, they have to weigh our tagged garbage cans, add it to the bill each month — which cost how much money? The idea being the less we put in the bin, the less we pay.

You can see the irony here. Paying directly for recycling will reduce garbage. Paying directly for garbage will reduce garbage. Huh?

Our whole economy is run on consumerism. Brad Wall is moving taxes away from income to consumer taxes. When we buy stuff, we pay taxes and make garbage. This is not a simple issue and will not have a simple answer. But moving the cost from taxes to utilities is not the answer. Marilyn Loken, Saskatoon