Dear Editor,
Today, I placed the recycling out on the street.
Later in the day I went to collect the empty bins and bags to discover one of the bins was not collected nor emptied.
There was a card left behind telling me that metal and hard plastics containers are to be placed in a blue bin.
In my particular case my wife normally puts recycling out to the street.
Since she happened to be away I did the job myself.
I placed all the hard plastics in a red bin labelled plastics. When the truck arrived I watched him empty the other bags and bins.
He looked into the red bin marked plastics then left a card telling me I did not do the job right.
I phoned and they told me very clearly that they leave the product behind if it is in a wrong bin.
No discussion or alternatives.
I have a big problem with such stupid bureaucracy.
The worker actually looked in the bin and it clearly contained hard plastics.
It seems to me that the proper thing to do would be to empty the bin since it was all of the proper product, then leave a notice for next time.
If this household was a chronic offender, I could understand drawing a line in the sand even for a dumb rule. This was not the case.
After speaking to them, I was directed to Recycle BC.
I called that number and it appeared to me I was in a loop as the canned message was exactly the same except I’m now directed to voicemail.
I next called city hall and spoke to a receptionist who immediately tried to brush off my call telling me that the city has nothing to do with recycling.
I appropriately told this person that the city clearly has much to do with recycling, since I pay for this service on my property taxes.
I’m now informed that my option is to send an email. I asked for the email for CAO Scott Hartman but was not supplied with any. In view of this I include Mr. [Mayor Dan] Ruimy in my concerns.
Bottom line for me is that I have an expectation of a decent service and not only did I not get service, but got a significant bureaucratic runaround.
Frankly the colour of a bin should not be a factor when the bin is clearly filled with the right product placed on the street on the right day.
I hate to use the taxpayer card, but truly as a taxpayer, I got a runaround for what never should have been any issue at all.
I doubt there is any opt out of the blue bin collection process, so the least I expect is a process that is not mired in dumb bureaucracy.
Bruce Carrie, Maple Ridge