Garbage theories

Philip Preville's cover article on the city's intended war on garbage in grocery bags ["The terrors of trash," Sept. 30] offered an interesting new perspective on the ugly bags littering the cityscape: we should feel more comfortable with them because they are a recycled product.

Unfortunately, he assumes that the only options are the status quo (grocery bags) or what the city is proposing (larger bags, presumably made of new plastic). There are other options which would make a longer term positive contribution to the environment.

First, people could put their groceries in reusable cloth bags, baskets or backpacks, and not have any plastic bags to dispose of. (Remember the 3Rs: reduce and reuse come before recycle.) Secondly, regarding the unsightliness of garbage (not such a bad thing if reminding us of our overconsumption didn't merely serve to make us used to ugliness), the character and disposition of the bags makes little difference to the basic result: a mountain of difficult-to-manage waste.

In fact, large bins are not a suburban solution, as the quoted councillor Rotrand would have us believe. Bins owned by the city, large enough to take bags of any colour, size and origin, can be more centrally collected (i.e. in the Plateau situation, at regular intervals along the lane). They can be incorporated into the urban landscape, preferably next to the recycling and compost bins. One can even build covered sheds and plant vines to hide them. Only the alley cats would find fault with it all.

Sound Utopian? It shouldn't. I lived for years in a major world city that has an inspiring, forward-looking culture--Berlin, Germany--and already has such a system not only in place, but fully functioning and integrated into all urban designs. I find the attempted justification of the grocery bag a rather sad expression of Montreal's inability to think planet-size.

--Susan Ross

Although the new municipal garbage bylaws do appear a tad anal, that is the way the vast majority of our laws, bylaws and regulations appear to the average citizen. The targets of justice in this case are the selfish morons who don't care that their four, five or six little bags are spread out and that the garbage collector is the one who has to gather this crap. It doesn't take a study to show that larger bags make for a more effective collection. And if you want anal garbage collecting, go to Switzerland, where one buys garbage bags from the municipal government, and only a certain amount are allotted per week per household. Any extra bags requested are heavily taxed. The fact that new rules are enacted by the government does not necessarily mean they're bad. At one point in Montreal, sewers were not considered a necessity and business (of course) was vehemently opposed to having them built. The result was what was described as the most polluted city in North America, and this was only 120 years ago... Can things change? Maybe, but it takes time and, dare I say it, education, and the latter is not fashionable because it costs money. All things being said, let me assure you that I am no fan of the current mayor, finding him somewhat "epais."

--Georges Clermont

Party lines

Your "Angel of the week" suggests that recent changes of party loyalty among members of the Canadian House of Commons offers yet more proof that politics is meaningless [Sept. 30]. How so? Surely a simple change of allegiance could demonstrate that free men and women engaged in democratic debate can be swayed by the arguments of their opponents and change their views. And that, I suggest, would show that politics is indeed meaningful and debate fruitful.

I'm well aware that there are other less creditable reasons for switching parties--personal gain or ambition, for example. But you didn't show that was the case for Bill Matthews et al. Even if you had, that would only demonstrate the venality of some politicians, and not the meaninglessness of politics.

--Paul A. R. Waters

Correction

In last week's cover story on Montreal garbage laws ["The terrors of trash," Sept. 30], the comment attributed to Christiane Bolduc was in fact spoken by Christiane Gelinas. The Mirror regrets the error of attribution.

Correction

The photo of Play (With Me) by the McGill Players Theatre ["Games without frontiers," Sept. 23] should have been attributed to Rushan Galagoda.