Letter: A poor choice to reduce recycling pickup

Posted on by Letters
Graphic by Lori Deaton

The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners renewed Waste Pro’s contract with a 25% reduction in service. This reduction comes in the form of allowing Waste Pro to cut back recycling collection to once every two weeks. I and, from what I observe, most of my neighbors have almost equal amounts of recyclables and nonrecyclables. This change places an extreme burden on us to store recycling for an extra week.

Cutting back on this service only encourages people to put more recyclable material into their regular trash. This is extremely unfortunate, and once again our county commissioners have let down the people they represent.

Although I have been very pleased with Waste Pro’s service since they took over collection from GDS, I am dismayed that the county commissioners allowed this contract to be renewed for five years with such a major reduction in service.

This is particularly hypocritical as Asheville benefits from marketing itself as an environmentally responsible community. Clearly, not the case.

This was a poor choice for our county commissioners to make, and they should be held accountable at election time.

— Alan J. Lipsky
Arden

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5 thoughts on “Letter: A poor choice to reduce recycling pickup”

  2. Lulz

    LOL the letter writer is mistaken. Go to any construction site with a dumpster. In it you will find cardboard, plastic, toxic materials, electrical components, florescent bulbs, metal, wood, carpet, tile, concrete, etc. None of it gets recycled. It goes straight to the landfill lulz. If you’re telling yourselves that the area is environmentally conscious because that’s what a bunch of buffoon democrats told you to think it is LOL, joke is on you.

  3. Troubled Traveler

    Few of the apartment complexes in the county have any sort of recycling service available. The place I live now replaces carpet and linoleum after every tenant and few tenants remain here for long. Huge amounts of tenant recyclables go right in the dumpster and straight to the landfill. They also fertilize plants and trees indiscriminately and what about the power wash chemicals when all the buildings in the complex get sprayed down.?.?.?. Have you looked at our rivers lately? What can be seen with the naked eye is disgusting. What can’t be seen can be deadly…..
    And NOBODY wants to talk about noise or light pollution around here! I simply can’t wait to hear what lulz has to say!
    We all have a long way to go to get as green as we need to before it’s simply too late……but that can not be the reason not to try! There can be no reason not to make every effort to get 1% better every day! Regardless of what our “leaders” are doing…..

  4. Patrick M.

    I have lived in three places in town and recycling had always been every two weeks…

  5. James Cassara

    Having to wait two weeks to recycle is an “extreme burden”? Seriously?

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