Dear Editor,

Before we were so rudely interrupted by a silent viral buzz-killer, we were on the verge of coming to grips with our garbage habits. Single-use plastics were being phased out, replaced with re-usable or biodegradable containers. Suddenly, single-use plastic bags, food containers, gloves, etc., are all that are used. The plastic trash problem still exists, and is getting worse. We’re filling the world with plastic garbage, and Covid  or not,  that’s not the world we want for ourselves or our children. While we’re still in staycation  mode, we should plan for a more adult way of dealing with trash, especially plastic. There is no GOOD way to deal with a problem we should never have created in the first place. But WE created it – not the government, not the terrorists, not the immigrants, not the virus.

Is an incinerator the least-worst way to go?  There are negative consequences inherent in any process, so let’s predict those consequences, and plan for dealing with them. There will be pollution; any method or process is technology, not magic. How much pollution, and is it in the air, the water, or the ground? Burying trash, to be dealt with sometime in the future, is just not an adult way to deal with it.  Dealing with trash as being all the same is not really dealing with it at all. Plastic, organics, metals, glass are all very different in the way they should be collected and dealt with. But back to plastics, incineration just may be the least-worst way of dealing. 

Now come the questions – who, where, when, and how expensive?  You can’t just pile up plastic trash and burn it – the fumes are killer. If a system is promoted with a promise of 99% clean air, that means 1% high-level air pollution.  Can you survive in an atmosphere of 1% carcinogenic chemical pollution? Do you want that as part of our legacy to those too young to vote and decide grand undertakings? 

Another issue, related to the disposal, is the random distribution of trash now – by that, I mean you trash-tossers, who can’t even be bothered to take it home and put it into a bin. 

I had a crew of youngsters lined up to pick up trash for spending money, but the virus made that an unsafe plan. As the snowbanks melted away, the trash emerged along the PPJ and some streets, but now, it’s not safe for kids to earn money by gathering cans, cups and bags. If it were safe, we’d be doing it, and I’d be mumbling silent curses toward the uncivil polluters. Get back to me, if you have an idea or two, about how we can safely deal with this, our great self-created problem. 

Robert Wills, Shawville/Thorne