Voice objections
Dear Editor,
Robert Wills’ elegant letter about there being no good way of dealing with nuclear waste (Hoarding waste, April 13, 2022) highlights a major flaw with the Chalk River project. Wills tells us to “vote no to forever waste.”
Unfortunately, there will not be a vote on the . . .
proposal to license Chalk River as a nuclear waste dump site. That is because the Harper government, in one of its last make-government-smaller acts, divested the Canadian government of all responsibility and accountability for the nuclear industry. In a totally incomprehensible action, it has allowed the nuclear industry to set up its own rules as to what is safe and where to dump waste. It is as if the government told automotive manufacturers, “build cars the way you want them and set up the traffic rules for us too.”
The consortium that has a big stake in making Chalk River includes the SNC Lavalin corporation and two American companies looking to make money on producing and disposing of nuclear waste.
These corporations don’t really care about the communities on either side of the upper Ottawa River. To them, it’s a cheap place to put nuclear waste. With the ‘hearings’ coming in late May, concerned citizens of the Pontiac — with all their politicians — have to voice their objections to the proposal and fight for the beauty and integrity and health of their land.
Carl Hager
Gatineau, Que.
Wasted Again
Spring is here, the snowbanks are melted away, and we see the emerging detritus along the sides of roads and hiking trails. It’s time for the annual litterbug-chiding.
Each municipality has a waste management committee, and they are meeting to consider what to do with waste materials collected at the transfer stations. So far, hauling it to Lachute for landfilling is the active plan. That’s subject to improvement, as we learn of new ways to divert and to reduce the transport of those materials.
Municipal crews can’t deal with the litter that inconsiderate people toss along the roadside. I sometimes go for a hike and take along a plastic bag to collect cans, bottles, face masks, etc. that are casually tossed by the unfortunate few who haven’t the strength to take their trash to a collection site, or add it to their household garbage. But it cuts my hike short and annoys me to have to do that. What do you think? Do you think that a littered pathway is enjoyable to see? I know I’m not the only one who picks up after litterbugs, but there’s always more. Those energy drinks aren’t working, if people don’t have the energy to look after their own empty cans and bottles.
And what’s the deal with dog poop tied up in a plastic bag? Yes, its kind of you dog walkers to pick it up from the pathway, but just toss it into the weeds, where nobody is likely to be walking. Dog poop will disintegrate and be composted very quickly, it it’s left in nature. Wrapped up and tied in a plastic bag, it waits until someone gets tired of seeing it, and picks it up. Then what? We’re not supposed to include organic material in the household trash, and besides, it’s no fun to open someone else’s poop baggy and find a place to dispose of it.
On the positive side, there’s a new technology that has the potential to deconstruct persistent plastics, which means those materials can be upcycled, at low temperatures, to be like virgin plastic material again. Of course, this new process is not in widespread use yet, but the promise is there, to turn the tide of enormous plastic pollution and actually recycle that material.
You can learn about this process through this video; https://youtu.be/hLBBTX6ARLY
Robert Wills,
Shawville and Thorne
