The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Think expertise Think Garaga Experts To help you choose the door model that complements the style of your home, talk to your Garaga Experts garage door consultant. Garage makeover 118 Guelph Street, Unit 6 Georgetown www.bmgaragedoor.com (905) 873-4848 /(888) 836-5552 85 10 Independent & Free Press, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Our readers write... about GreenCart Dear editor, Now that we have (willingly) turned our kitchens and garages into veritable recycling depots, theres one final question that begs to be asked. With food composting away in little plastic buckets; with glass jars, cans, plastic bottles, newspapers and cardboard towed away from blue boxes; with grass clippings acting as mulch for our lawns; with yard waste ready for a second life elsewhere; with broken-down household items and appliances routinely picked up or on-call for reincarnation; and with tires, paint and batteries just a short trip away to the nearest hazardous waste container station, could the Region please answer the one ques- tion were all dying to know... What the heck goes into regular garbage anymore?! Graham Willsher, Georgetown Dear editor, I live in Georgetown South, a senior and I have a few ques- tions. How do you get a pizza box into a green bin without seri- ous surgery or injury? After the garbage collectors go by why does our street look like a war zone in downtown Baghdad? Who will pay for my next green bin when the one I received gets run over because a garbage man has left it in the centre of the road? Where did the 55 gallon drum go from Mountainview Road that was taken away when it got too full? Would it not have been better to empty it and return it. Now the garbage has blown against the fence. Just some thoughts. Ross Webster, Georgetown Dear editor, In last Wednesdays paper I was shocked to see that 27% of people surveyed would not use the new GreenCart! As of April 4th Im happy to say that that number has fallen to 15%. But Im still a little upset that 10.5 people out of 70 still say they are not going to use the new GreenCart. Why? It costs nothing for us to use, the effort required to use it is minimal and the impact on the environment is huge. At the very least, all you have to do is scrape your dinner plate and throw in your leftovers. If on the other hand, youre not using it because you already have a compost bin for your garden, then thats great. But why not throw in the stuff that you dont put in your composter? There are lots of food and paper products that you surely dont want in there. Meats and bones, eggs shells, that stinky old yogurt that the rodents would love to investigate. Perhaps you feel that its too little too late. The environmen- tal issues that we are faced with today are massive and over whelming. We really cant change them by ourselves. But, if we take steps in the right directions, regardless of how small, then perhaps future generations can build upon our small successes to eventually solve these issues. Whatever your reasoning is, please re-consider using the GreenCart. Jeff Aul, Georgetown Dear editor, I have just been on a walk through south Georgetown on recycling day and found myself absolutely astonished at what people are still trying to put out. Do people not read the recycling information that Halton Hills has provided everyone with? The constant reminders that have been in this paper regarding the issue of not leaving lids on plastic bottles or not recy- cling plastic shopping bags it amazes me that people are still doing this. As a very concerned environmentalist, I am asking everyone, please do not leave lids on any plastic bot- tles they will get rejected at the recycling plant. So there is no point in putting them out for recycling, if you do not do this thank you! Julie Liddle, Georgetown Dear editor, I must say that I was very impressed by the number of people on our street who participated in the first week of GreenCart collection. You can imagine then my surprise when I received a notice in the mail a few days later from Halton Region telling me they would be stopping my GreenCart collection. You see, I live in a townhouse, and it seems some selfish, lazy people who live in these homes have com- plained to the Region, and to some councillors that the GreenCarts are a nuisance that they have nowhere to store them, no room at the curb to place them. Thanks to this small group of people the efforts by the larger group has been stifled. I cannot understand why the Region would cancel such a wonderful collection plan when it was obvi- ous how many, even in townhouse complexes, wanted to partic- ipate. Just because a few who found it too hard to separate their garbage complained about it? Think how much these complainers have cost us. Not just by the size of footprint they wish to leave on the planet, but in tax dollars. Tax dollars were spent to distribute the Green Carts to all the homes, and tax dollars were spent sending out letters that they would be cancelling the program to our homes until further notice. Again it will be tax dollars spent that sends the Region out to collect all the Green Bins they distributed, and because most of them were used (albeit just for one week) I have serious doubts that those same bins will be re-distributed again. And what about the biodegradable bags we bought for the Cart and for the kitchen catchers? Never mind that - these selfish individuals have managed to get the Region to agree to pick up their garbage weekly again since the Green Carts will be leaving. A whole trip out for the dump truck just for you selfish bunch. What does that cost? When I ask you to consider cost, I dont just mean the mone- tary costs of the waste collection. This program was to extend the life of our dump by years. This program was to help return valuable nutrients to our soil through compost. There are many costs to consider, in many meanings of the word. As for the rest of you wonderful townhouse dwellers who do wish to keep the program dont let this minority have their way, just because they were the only ones to voice an opinion. I encourage you to contact the Region at 1-866-442-5866 and file a complaint about the cancellation of GreenCart service in your area. It only takes a few moments. Contact your councillors, the paper... Dont let a few bad apples spoil the GreenCart program for the rest of us! Laura Scriver, Acton Dear editor, I would like to know why we are not permitted to participate in the green box program? I live in a co-op townhouse complex. My neighbors and I want to participate in the new recycling program, just like the rest of the town and community. Unfortunately we are renting the townhouse, thus we do not qualify to participate in the regions new recycling pro- grams. Not being able to recycle with the rest of the community, we are forced to keep all of our garbage, food scraps and household waste, for two weeks. We do not have the facilities required to keep this amount of garbage secure and away from the animals. This is going to be a growing concern in the weeks to come as the temperature rises and the garbage begins to rot and stink. We live very close to the Credit River and a naturally wooded area, and are already seeing an increase in the animal traffic in the area trying to get at our garbage. This is only the first week of the pro- gram. Being told you can not participate in making your communi- ty GREENER, just because you dont own a detached house or freehold townhouse is not right. We care about our planet and our future, just as much as everyone else. Let everyone participate in the new recycling program, it is practical. C.Sirman, Georgetown Dear Editor, Have you started using the GreenCart? I think our family has but I dont know how long that will last. Last fall, a presenter from Waste Management came to my school and gave a presentation on the GreenCart (not the most interesting show). I remember commenting that it would be a problem. Garbage pickup every two weeks? Yuck! Some cant even last for one. Doggie doodoo and baby diapers would surely turn your garage into a stinkhole. Then, about two weeks ago, I was sitting with my dad at our beloved Tim Hortons sipping hot chocolate. Somehow, the GreenCart came up in our conversation. We real- ized that at first glance, the GreenCart seems really smart. Composting? Sure! But then you really think about it and you realize the truth. It would turn out to be a smelly hassle that not many would be able to keep up with. If a Grade 7 student could forsee this, couldnt anyone else? Could they not see that this could be a disaster? Shouldnt the GreenCart People have asked the general public for their opinion before taking such drastic mea- sures? Katrina Dods, Grade 7 student, Georgetown Senior has questions ... ...regular garbage goes where? Newspaper poll on GreenCart shocks reader Student is unimpressed by smelly mess Get with the program! Include us, pleaseCancelled in one neighbourhood