February 22, 2005
Tuesday

Since I work outside in many different neighborhoods, I look at things slightly different than the average. I can see why a lot of trash ends up were it does... and most of it is your own trash laying in front of your driveways. I think you feel that if I am only going to pay to have just one or two trash cans picked up, I had better cram as much in there as I can. So you put out your trash, with the lid not on very good, or the heavier bags on top and the wind is blowing. Maybe your dog or the neighbor's dog likes the smell, whatever the reason by the time the trash man gets to your home, your trash is all over. The crows, ravens, sea gulls and the dogs have really made a mess. Those guys do a good job picking up some of your mess even though you did not know you made it. But it's in the ditch it's in the neighbor's yard... it's all over. And it's your fault but you're not going to crawl in the ditch with your clothes from work on so you forget as it blows on down into someone else's yard.

I take my trash right to the dump. I built a very tuff bin that the bear has worked very hard to get into, but even that is not the answer if you forget to lock it.

In the big world out there they do this thing called recycling. That is were they have separate bins for every thing. Your food trash is reduced to a minimum because you rinse out your cans and put them out. And for some reason plastic is the most trash we have. Where does that stuff come from? It can not be from trees. It's everywhere, even hanging in the trees. We need a better system but our local city government is afraid of making recycling mandatory. It seems they would rather pay for a big land fill in western Washington. Why not just charge us? Paper is the only thing you can burn in your trash barrel or burn piles.

And the other thing you are complaining about is the guy on your street whose yard is a junk heap. Well this is the borough's fault with the way the tax law they created works. If a guy is going to clean up his yard you are going to tax him more so he well not do it. I feel we need to reboot the government. Update and change a few laws that are old and out-dated. Property tax is what it is and it is good for all who own property to pay it. But then it's got to be fair. The guy who lives in the nice house should have to pay the same as the guy who lives in the house with all the old memories piled up. Property tax is property tax - the land has the same value. You should not be taxed more because you have the incentive to get off your butt and make your place nice. It should be reestablished that you are taxed by the footage of your property rather than the quality of your home. This would give the slob more incentive to clean up.

This isn't what I wanted to write about today but this is my opinion and it's out.

Robert McRoberts
Ketchikan, AK - USA

 

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