Duncan - Re: Illegal trash dumping in CVRD recycle bins, also re letter More regulations not the answer to garbage woes (May 2).
It is the very practice of trying to reduce the amount of garbage people "produce" (read: put on the curb in a can) that is exacerbating illegal dumping. Recycling is great, but far too much emphasis was placed, since the 1990s at least, on reducing the amount of trash we are allowed to put on the curb. They thought they were reducing trash. It doesn't quite work out that way.I started to notice illegally dumped trash in North Cowichan out in the woods around the same time they cut the allowable can size practically in half. This was people's house trash; obviously someone couldn't fit it all in their curb cans.Then, not all that long ago, someone decided it was a great idea to drop the allowable containers to one without penalty or extra charge. No wonder the CVRD bins were used, ironically, for illegal trash. The people who put these policies into practice should not be surprised at its unintended but completely predictable results.I can see it all now, in 20 years the size of the trash can allowed will be reduced to the size of an ice cream bucket, and the woods will fill with garbage while politicians pat each other on the back about how they reduced the amount of trash picked up by garbage trucks.April J. GibsonDuncan