Letter to the Editor

Deposit costs too low

Dear Editor,

Wally Martin picks up an average of 10 pieces of litter per day dropped around Murrayville's Five Corners.

Every day, I take a walk around the Five Corners and pick up the litter on the road.

On average, there are 10 pieces per day. That is an astonishing 3,650 pieces per year, all within 100 feet of the intersection. I can only imagine the billions and trillions of pieces that are littered around the province every year. The vast majority of the litter is beverage containers and fast-food packaging.

I am sick of being an unpaid employee of the giant fast-food and beverage makers and vendors, including alcohol. They think we are all stupid to do this volunteer work for them.

These companies could solve the problem overnight by putting a deposit system in place to ensure the return of their containers. Since they seem to want to act in an irresponsible way, the only solution to the litter problem is legislation.

The current five-cent deposit on pop and beer cans is a joke. The deposit should be increased to at least 50 cents or one dollar, and should apply to all forms of beverage and fast-food packaging.

Also, the current system of littering fines should be expanded, and apply to the vendors and manufacturers of the items being littered.

All this would clean up our streets overnight. What is wrong with having clean streets?

Wally Martin, Murrayville

http://www2.canada.com/langleyadvance/news/letters/story.html?id=c28e2083-9f54-4c92-beb9-0e6e171f1343