Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Finding a will and a way to go green

Recently, The City of Richmond introduce a new Food Scraps Composting Program for which all homeowners could participate, with some exceptions.

I wrote into our local newspaper in response to a letter on the topic, which was published, it is as follows:
Finding a will and a way to go green

Editor:

In a follow up to Carrie Sproviero’s letter in the May 22 paper (“Why can’t townhomes be part of composting program?”), I too was an eager Richmondite wanting to participate in the new Food Scraps Composting Program.

Unfortunately, I also live in a townhouse complex, which at this time, only has the basic blue box program which I’m an avid use of.

After reading the reasons for apartment and townhouse complexes being excluded from the program, I can understand why, but that doesn’t diminish my desire to what to do the right thing for our environment.

So, it was time to think outside the box, and use the guide lines set out for individual home owners “You are welcome to set out multiple green cans and unlimited paper yard trimmings bags” to my advantage.

I went out and purchased my nifty green wheeled can with locking lid (Rona) and proceeded to fill it up with all things accepted.

When garbage/recycle day came I happily rolled my green can all the way to the individual homeowner across the street and set my can with theirs.

Now feeling quite satisfied, I to “can” participate in the program. I’ve made it work for me now and I encourage other excluded individuals to do the same.

Where there is a will, there is a way!


Heather
Richmond

2 comments:

  1. I like your ingenuity! We have a similar problem here with townhouse communitys. My Mother's barely has a private recycling program. It's terrible. When I garden there I have to bring home my green waste and toss it in my bin. Unfortunately your solution wouldn't work here as we have city issued bin for the houses. We are actively encouraging our local politicians to try to change the way the townhouse waste system work. What good is our fabulous composting system if industry & condo & townhome areas can't opt in?

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  2. @Laura, I only hope that this program is successful enough for the City to re-assess their accessibility to multi-family dwellings. Until then I hope the readers took inspiration from my tactics, and follow my lead.

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