Excuses when it comes to paper rubbish bags

HANG on a minute. I’ve just read the reply from the Dunedin City Council’s solid waste manager, Catherine Irvine, to L. McConnell’s suggestion that the council stop using plastic rubbish bags (ODT, 22.11.17). As a useful contribution to cutting down plastic in the environment it sounds sensible to me, but she raised various objections.

As a student in Christchurch in the ’70s I had a holiday job delivering tough, multilayered paper rubbish bags which the local council was providing to replace the old metal rubbish tins. No big deal, and they did the job fine.

Why is her response not, ‘‘Good idea — let’s make this work’’, instead of the usual bureaucratic kneejerk, ‘‘Oh, we couldn’t possibly’’? As exemplified by Dr Al Hepburn’s urology catchup weekend, say?

Oh, and you could defray the cost somewhat by selling print advertising on the paper bags. It’s not difficult. Steve August

Dunedin

One speed fits all?

I AM thinking that the speed restriction disparity between large and small vehicles may be the cause of some road casualties.

Would it not be better to have most vehicles on the same limit, whether it be 100kmh or 90kmh? This would reduce the urge for some small vehicle drivers to overtake with the resultant risks involved.

Breaking the speed limit is invariably involved in such moves. John Kennedy

Mornington

Dunedin bus fares

‘‘BUSES should be cool, trendy, and clean so that everybody will want to use them. They should be cheaper, environmentally cleaner, easy to use and more convenient than taking the car. Make them $1 or $2 a ride for everyone and fill those buses! Less cars on the road and more profit for the bus companies. Buses should be the new face of Dunedin.’’

In 2014 these words were put to the Otago Regional Council (ORC) in a submission on its transport plan. Flattering to me they should then develop this for Queenstown, but Dunedin is a student city and buses still need filling. Why not here?

Liz Angelo

Dunedin

Deal with root causes

EXCELLENT article (ODT, 20.11.17), kudos to Marcelle NaderTurner.

Visiting Joppa/Jaffa, a Mediterranean coastal town in Israel, 10 years ago, I observed a large afterschool programme catering for 800 children. The Jaffa Institute was run by Christians 4 Israel, for mixed Jewish and Arab children from poorer families, with the goal of educating children out of poverty.

The children were transported after school in the early afternoon to a hearty healthy dinner and then went to extra classes in Hebrew or Arabic.

An impressive part of the programme included the rooftop area housing small animals including rabbits, so when a child needed to talk or was troubled, they could go to the rooftop for counselling help, while cuddling and stroking animals.

Also, the C4I successful agricultural programme in the West Bank, for boys with drug and other problems, allowed them to attend lessons, work the land, milk goats, make cheese and yoghurt, and be responsible for an animal and a buddy.

New Zealand could do far better by pursuing such programmes than by throwing money at the current ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. Jan Robb Cromwell [Abridged] ..................................

BIBLE READING: You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. — Matthew 5:13.