To the Editor,
I read recently that the Champlain Township’s spring Household Hazardous Waste collection was cancelled due to concerns regarding the safety of staff and residents during the current crisis. The annual Spring Garbage Collection was cancelled for the same reasons. Further, the landfill, and for the same reason, will remain closed until further notice.
I do not dispute the decision to not go ahead with these annual events or with the closure of the landfill. On the contrary, I agree with the Township Councils decision. However, I believe that a small error occurred in the way in which this decision was passed to the public.
To use the word cancelled, and with no embellishment was, I would respectfully suggest, an error. The impression left with the public, unintentional though I’m sure it was, is that your household hazardous waste and you usual spring garbage collection is now your problem, not ours. Oh, and the landfill is no longer an option.
Again, I do not dispute that the decision to not do these things was correct, only that it could have been worded somewhat better. Instead of cancelled, perhaps postponed or delayed and with a request that people stock pile both hazardous waste and spring garbage until this current situation sorts itself out.
The results of people thinking they are on their own, that these collections have been cancelled, full stop, no explanation, and that they will have to deal with the problem themselves, are already, slowly, starting to appear along ditches on the township’s back roads. If people continue to think they have to deal with these waste materials themselves, it will only get worse.
Respectfully,
Colin Affleck, L’Orignal
