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LETTER: Organics containers a challenge for seniors in Port Alberni

Those organics bins? The stink is only part of the problem…
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To the Editor,

RE: New organics container is a smelly problem, Letters, Jan. 19

I’ve never written to a newspaper in the past, but after reading Mr. Noble’s letter I feel compelled to “put my two cents’ worth” in.

Those organics bins? The stink is only part of the problem. Am I the only Port Alberni resident who, in the hot weather, finds the interior of the bin covered in maggots? I spray it with bleach but it only kills on contact so the ones incubating in the bottom of the bin remain unaffected.

And what’s with the giant bins? Who needs 240 litres, especially when you can empty it every week? I can manage the blue bin because paper and plastic is fairly light. Two-thirds full and I can still get it to the curb, but to fill the green bin even halfway makes it almost impossible for a senior with strength and balance issues to haul it away.

And I don’t want to take it out unless there’s enough in it to make it worth the effort, hence the critters. Every time it’s back, I have to wash it out with a bucket of hot, soapy water.

We have a really large senior population in Port Alberni that the powers-that-be obviously did not consider.

Many older people want to remain in their homes independently. I do, but it’s the “little” things like this that make it really, really difficult.

Lynn Pearn,

Port Alberni