I am writing as one who has always made every effort to minimise waste, maximise recycling and compost as much as possible.
I have read with concern the proposal to provide households with garbage bins for different waste streams. Why?….it may seem like a good idea to standardise for collection, but the practicalities of storage for many households will be virtually impossible.
We own a small detatched home with single garage which is used to house one of our cars, so there is no room to store bins within, and none outside as the garden is planted, and there is only a relatively narrow space between the houses, with a steep slope down, which becomes inaccessible in winter, so bins could not be stored at the rear of the property. Will we enhance our ‘welcome’ by having to put them on our front porch?!!
We experienced municipally-supplied bins while living in France and know how much space they occupy. I would further comment that the size of the bins was quite disproportionate to the amount of waste generated.
Perhaps we are not typical as we generate relatively small amounts of waste and we compost as much as we can, but I would appeal to you to re-evaluate this proposal before the seemingly unnecessary outlay of big tax dollars to implement a system which is going to create huge difficulties for the residents of Guelph and alienate many who till now have been very supportive of our waste management system.JD