Dear Editor:
The District of North Vancouver is implementing a new garbage collection scheme in 2017. Single-family homes will be given two 240-litre wheeled carts, one for household waste, the other for organics. By comparison, the large Schaefer cart now in use is 360 litres but an extra garbage fee is charged if it is more than half full.
For most people, for most of the year, the new system will have advantages. Hopefully it will reduce back injuries for district workers.
For gardeners and those “blessed” with large maples or chestnut trees on the district’s boulevard, parts of the scheme look like it was designed by a condo dweller who has never raked leaves.
The district’s website says: “You can use your old containers to store leaves or extra yard waste in the spring and fall, and continue to fill your cart each week with the stored organics (but remember you can’t put your old containers out for collection).” They’ve got to be kidding; I expect to see many people simply raking their leaves into the street.
A sensible policy would supplement the cart pickup with the pickup of paper garden bags when the leaves drop in the fall, and perhaps during spring garden cleanup. The volume of organic material in those seasons vastly exceeds the home composting capacity of most people.
David Schreck
North Vancouver
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