Editor: Either Chatham-Kent council didn’t understand the implications of the new provincial recycling policy it adopted recently, or it didn’t care. Either way, it is terrible news for both small business and the environment, and I am disappointed that council didn’t protest this like they have protested the new strong mayor powers.
One of the outcomes of the new policy appears to be that commercial properties – including small businesses – in C-K will no longer get curbside pickup of recyclables. They will either have to pay a private contractor to haul them away or send them to the dump.
Even if this provincial-level recycling comes with a reduction in taxes, we all know that reduction will be small and will evaporate as other municipal costs go up.
Given the tight margins most businesses run on, especially the small, locally owned ones, this means that most will be forced to landfill these materials.
This is a huge step backward, environmentally, and a tremendous waste of resources.
It also represents the increasing privatization of essential public services.
As a small business, we were already struggling with the amount of packaging we get from our suppliers, because downtown recycling pick up was every other week. While we source locally for many products and ingredients, and work with our suppliers to minimize packaging as much as possible, for some things we don’t have a choice as to how things are sent to us.
This will either increase our expenses, which we frankly can’t afford, or vastly increase our impact in the environment, which is the opposite of what we set out to do.
It is especially puzzling that council would go along with getting rid of recycling for businesses along the main streets since most of C-K’s main streets have residences above the shops and residential recycling will still take place.
If businesses bring in private contractors to cope with recyclables, this increases traffic.
This is incredibly frustrating because we want so much to invest in our community.
Chandra Clarke
Chatham
