Rubbish disposal

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33384, 16 November 1973, Page 8

Rubbish disposal

Sir, —May I suggest to our I City Fathers that the only times the vast majority of citizens are able to dump their rubbish at city dumps is at week-ends or after 4.30 p.m. This practice of deferring those who would help clean the city is incomprehensible to me, and the reasons for it are truly comical.—Yours, etc., 9 TO 5 November 14, 1973. Sir, —In the rush to order plastic bags by the million, the Mayor and his colleagues do seem to reveal that there has been little or no research. Do they not know that plastic bags do not disintegrate? What then happened to the contents? Auckland went the right way about it, experiimenting for two years, in ■ two districts, with double '■ paper bags. Dogs or no dogs, it was a howling success. Auckland’s rainfall is more than twice that of Christchurch. Auckland has a big

compost processing plant. I bought a lot of it. The,snag is the small plastic bags used to contain refuse, and these, despite drastic processing, were mixed with the compost. I Somebody must stop this folly. Plastic is not the answer.—Yours etc., SOTTO VOCE November 15, 1973. Sir, —As a ratepayer of! Waimairi County I pay 10c each for paper rubbish bags.; 1 was surprised to find friends living in the City Council area pay only 8c each — recently increased from 7c. All these bags come from one company yet it seems there is no regular price. If I buy the same bag at a retail shop I can pay up to 13c each. I have not checked the price charged in Riccarton, Heathcote, Lyttelton or Paparua but it may be necessary to shop around for “discount” prices.—Yours etc., PRICE CONSCIOUS I November 14, 1973.