I have just recently bought a home here in Salmon Arm after having lived in the Kootenays for the past 40 years.
An ambitious transition but a most rewarding one in that the people of Salmon Arm are so very kind and welcoming.
I haven’t met many natives as it seems everyone will tell me of how they just moved here four or five years ago to enjoy the wonderful beauty and lifestyle of this community. I haven’t felt privilege as a resident to comment on city council’s actions but would like to comment if I may about the issues of the plastic bag ban being proposed as I find it to be somewhat hypocritical in philosophy as to the practice of garbage collection taking place.
In Castlegar and Nelson, the collection was done with the co-operation of the City, the Kootenay Regional District and Waste Management. Every home was issued two blue bins which I brought with me and have been using, the paper would go in one bin and plastics & cans in another, garbage in a plastic can holding household garbage in plastic bags are used as well. Most people had a compost bin that was also supplied by our tax dollars. When I first arrived here I found it odd that people all put their recyclables in plastic bags, an oxymoron having paper in a clear light blue plastic bag.
As for what really happens to all the plastic is another story but usually, it’s going to the landfill one way or the other as China is no longer taking the world’s garbage.
There are also regional dumps in the Kootenays with areas for specific items such as general garbage, appliances, wood products (which are burned) glass used with soil to cover and filter the refuse. Area for paint and car batteries are also available as well as a covered shed where people can leave items they don’t want and others can take and use, tv’s, good furniture etc. Vehicles are weighed going in and coming out and you pay accordingly.
I went to city hall when I first moved here but the people seemed to know little about the city policy other than to give me a couple pieces of paper about the pick up times. Maybe a visit to Nelson would be of benefit to some of those councillors worried about shopping bags and talk with the RDCK recyclables department.
What about giving every taxpayer a couple plastic bins and a couple of shopping bags to keep in their cars and let us use some common sense? That’s what I’m using.
Bob White