Waste issues remain

Patrick Cuthbert:

Dear Mr Rabinowitz, the matter you address is one that I studied in the George by-laws, a year or more ago, and wrote a letter to my councillor, wherein I made my opinion, within the parameters of the by-laws.

In essence, any trash I put out for collection by the municipality is either mine, or the municipality's. It is therefore theft to take any, or all of it. Any recyclable goods put out belong to either myself, or the recycling firm. So it is theft for anyone else to take part, or all of it. Such recyclable trash was removed by a company with whom the municipality had an agreement. So the municipality is failing in its agreement with the recycling firm. I have no agreement with them, so it is not my failure.

All sorts of things go into black bags. Dead animals, disposable nappies (used), poisons, past best-by-date food and so forth. It is, thus, a health hazard for anyone to scratch in a black bag and then eat food found therein.

The municipality cannot, therefore, permit this to happen. It is a health hazard.

All these points were made to my councillor, who said he had passed it on to "whoever had to deal with it", with no outcome. When I addressed a query to him, he could not remember what it was about and felt I was being "unfair" to him.

I understood that the agreement with any recyclers lapsed on 1 June and that the municipality would collect all bags. Well, yesterday (my collection day), they REFUSED to collect blue bags and I am still sitting with them.

So much for efficiency, transparency etc. etc.