INC NEWS - solidly wasted money

[RW Pickle]

Besides not having the extended days for hazardous waste drop off
beginning in July as we were told (by the Solid Waste Director Donald
Long), I saw something else that didn't make sense (like the bagging of
our waste in plastic bags) today that just seems like a huge waste of
taxpayer money. Redundant is a better way to think about it.

We have no yard waste/composting facility now. We may never have another
one if left to the folks who think inside the box. But as I watched my
green can and then my brown can picked up today, I was wondering why we're
wasting the fuel to run two different trucks? Since we understand from the
Solid Waste Director that all of our trash and yard waste gets mixed
together now (and charged at the same $39+/ton in Virginia) for transport,
why bother with two different trucks picking the two different colored
cans up? What kind of sense does that make? In fact, we no longer even
need two different colored cans and we should be able to mix our yard
waste right in with the household waste stream at our houses. Doesn't this
make sense? Or is just that those of us who subscribe to the yard waste
service are due some special sort of pickup of yard waste and by not
allowing it to be mixed, we cut out those who are less fortunate and are
not subscribers? I read today that Virginia is beginning to feel the pinch
of having all of the waste hauled to landfills be composed of 25% organic
materials (yard waste type of material).  How long can it be before the
cost of dumping it in landfills carries a premium price? Legislation is
currently in the Virginia Legislature that will tax ALL waste transported
into Virginia. They're talking from $.25-$10 a ton. So not only is this
yet another problem, we'll see the cost of disposal go up along with
Virginias' new fee (and our taxes as well to pay for it!). We just have to
start doing better...

We're wasting plastic bags made of petroleum to dispose of our trash (by
ordinance only because, like so many of the other regulations, they are
not enforced) and now we're wasting twice the amount of petroleum based
fuel (in the trucks) for different pickups of the different wastes. Only
to have them mixed when we get in all to the transfer station. In fact,
why do we even need a yard waste program, separate yard waste trucks, and
even a yard waste division if mixing the two waste streams is now the
norm? Couldn't we cut the costs nearly in half by just getting rid of that
program and its equipment altogether?

I asked our new "Solid Waste Enforcer" at a recent INC meeting how much he
has levied in fines since his arrival (in October 2006). He didn't know
and said he didn't keep track of it. Well someone does and I'm looking for
that figure. The whole idea behind rewriting the regulations was to allow
for enforcement (read $$$ here and action) and that was the whole premise
behind hiring someone. Not as some sort of educational ombudsman. We had
problems, we rewrote the regulations to get them enforced with fines, and
where are we on that road almost a year later? For some reason I got the
impression his current role was more of an educational one and not one of
enforcement. That's not why the rules were rewritten or that particular
job even came into being. We came to the conclusion that behavior tends to
change when you get into someones pocketbook (with fines), not when you
help them clean out their ear wax.

Perhaps we can get our Solid Waste Director (who is on the list) to
respond. I'm going to keep asking tough questions until we get some
sensible answers.

RWP
27 Beverly

"Responsible decision making helps ensure that citizen issues and
investments embrace the concerns of neighborhoods, communities, and
society as a whole. A high-quality of living for all Americans means we
must protect the essential elements of existence, including neighborhood
and community values." RWP