Retailers should be involved in recycling packaging

I read Fran Alexander’s column Tuesday morning and agree Fayetteville would be going down the wrong path with a single-stream recycling system. What most people are missing in this equation is the source of our recycle problem.

Ozark Natural Foods had the right idea when they provided recycle bins on the property for customers to bring items back from whence they were purchased.

Why should large retailers not be made responsible for the refuse they create? Most of them have huge parking lots that could easily provide a recycle area convenient to customers.

Then there are the instances where retailers make poor decisions in the product packaging equation. Such was the case when Walmart decided last year to change the packaging of their Market Side pizzas from cardboard to all plastic, plastic that cannot be recycled. I’ve written letters and provided negative feedback on the surveys they invite us to complete, but to no avail. I refuse to purchase items I cannot recycle.

If more people reduced, reused and recycled perhaps Fayetteville would not be looking at the problem they currently face.

T.A. SAMPSON Canehill