Today's Letters: Now is the time for recycling

Trash hauling changes ahead Jan. 17 story

You indicate that residents would not be required to recycle. This is very misleading. While residents would not, under a single stream system, be required to separate paper, cans, bottles and plastics, as all would be placed in one container, they would still need to use that container. That is a recycling container. In addition, they would have to separate these recyclables from organic trash such as food waste, soiled tissues, dirty diapers, etc.

The single stream concept is a good one but no one has indicated that it will be put into effect any time soon. In the interim, people should make the effort to blue bag the cans and bottles.

There is no reason why Pasco County cannot add newspaper collection to the list. We can do this now at low cost and with some return on the recycled product.

The tone of the commissioners' workshop was that recycling should be mandatory, if anything. A recycling fee was proposed. Why Pasco County residents do not understand that paying for recycling is cheaper than paying many millions of dollars more for another incinerator is beyond me.

We have a chance now to do the right thing and to save our county and our state for our children and grandchildren rather than leave them mountains of garbage with poisons leaching out.

Lewis Corvene,Hudson

A hidden burden in recycling plan

The proposed added recycling fee would place an unjust burden on those who can least afford it: low-income people living alone. We already have been burdened with exorbitant homeowners insurance and real estate taxes. We cannot afford any more.

I am a single senior citizen, living on a very low fixed income. At present, I am tapping into my meager savings each month just to pay my normal living expenses. When the savings is exhausted, I don't know what will happen to me.

I very seldom have more than a quarter to half of a container of trash to be hauled away. Yet I currently pay the same amount for regular trash removal as does a large family that might have 10 times the amount of trash as I.

I rarely use any canned foods and never use soda or other canned or bottled beverages. I have virtually no recyclables to discard other than one or two cans per month and the St. Petersburg Times (after I read it). Some families have four or more blue bags of soda cans and bottles out on every recycling day.

To assess a single, low-income senior citizen the same proposed recycling fee as those large families is an injustice, especially since most of us do not generate much recyclables to begin with.

Dorothyann Reilly, Port Richey

Good cigars, good friendsJan. 17 story

Cigars' history is ugly, not romantic

This article appears to be an unpaid ad for local cigar interests.

Tobacco in any form delivers nicotine, and we now know nicotine is a deadly drug. To glamorize the cigarmaking era in Tampa as something to bring back again is to promote a deadly drug for the sake of a few bucks by a few ignorant diehards.

Cigarette tobacco manufacturers ignored their own workers' health consequences. The cigar industry has somehow also escaped liability for the tens of thousands of workers who inhaled tobacco dust while working in sweatshop conditions.

How are reporters going to romanticize these kind of facts, while apparently helping (with free ads disguised as "news") to promote cigar smoking?

A strong warning would be more appropriate for those who are immature enough to confuse what they see in movies as chic with what is good for them.

So, while romanticizing and glorifying cigars, let's keep the facts straight: a deadly, addictive product, made by immigrants hungry for work, in the most inhumane of working conditions, all for the sake of a fortunate few to make and then increase their vast fortunes. Now others have the nerve to fondly recall how they miss the glory days of cigars.

Thank God cigars have gone out of style! They should only be remembered as a blight and a health hazard on ignorant people such as the subjects of your feature.

Angelo J. Anello, Land O'Lakes

Trash hauling changes ahead Jan. 17 story

Now is the time for recycling

You indicate that residents would not be required to recycle. This is very misleading. While residents would not, under a single stream system, be required to separate paper, cans, bottles and plastics, as all would be placed in one container, they would still need to use that container. That is a recycling container. In addition, they would have to separate these recyclables from organic trash such as food waste, soiled tissues, dirty diapers, etc.

The single stream concept is a good one but no one has indicated that it will be put into effect any time soon. In the interim, people should make the effort to blue bag the cans and bottles.

There is no reason why Pasco County cannot add newspaper collection to the list. We can do this now at low cost and with some return on the recycled product.

The tone of the commissioners' workshop was that recycling should be mandatory, if anything. A recycling fee was proposed. Why Pasco County residents do not understand that paying for recycling is cheaper than paying many millions of dollars more for another incinerator is beyond me.

We have a chance now to do the right thing and to save our county and our state for our children and grandchildren rather than leave them mountains of garbage with poisons leaching out.

Lewis Corvene,Hudson

A hidden burden in recycling plan

The proposed added recycling fee would place an unjust burden on those who can least afford it: low-income people living alone. We already have been burdened with exorbitant homeowners insurance and real estate taxes. We cannot afford any more.

I am a single senior citizen, living on a very low fixed income. At present, I am tapping into my meager savings each month just to pay my normal living expenses. When the savings is exhausted, I don't know what will happen to me.

I very seldom have more than a quarter to half of a container of trash to be hauled away. Yet I currently pay the same amount for regular trash removal as does a large family that might have 10 times the amount of trash as I.

I rarely use any canned foods and never use soda or other canned or bottled beverages. I have virtually no recyclables to discard other than one or two cans per month and the St. Petersburg Times (after I read it). Some families have four or more blue bags of soda cans and bottles out on every recycling day.

To assess a single, low-income senior citizen the same proposed recycling fee as those large families is an injustice, especially since most of us do not generate much recyclables to begin with.

Dorothyann Reilly, Port Richey

Good cigars, good friendsJan. 17 story

Cigars' history is ugly, not romantic

This article appears to be an unpaid ad for local cigar interests.

Tobacco in any form delivers nicotine, and we now know nicotine is a deadly drug. To glamorize the cigarmaking era in Tampa as something to bring back again is to promote a deadly drug for the sake of a few bucks by a few ignorant diehards.

Cigarette tobacco manufacturers ignored their own workers' health consequences. The cigar industry has somehow also escaped liability for the tens of thousands of workers who inhaled tobacco dust while working in sweatshop conditions.

How are reporters going to romanticize these kind of facts, while apparently helping (with free ads disguised as "news") to promote cigar smoking?

A strong warning would be more appropriate for those who are immature enough to confuse what they see in movies as chic with what is good for them.

So, while romanticizing and glorifying cigars, let's keep the facts straight: a deadly, addictive product, made by immigrants hungry for work, in the most inhumane of working conditions, all for the sake of a fortunate few to make and then increase their vast fortunes. Now others have the nerve to fondly recall how they miss the glory days of cigars.

Thank God cigars have gone out of style! They should only be remembered as a blight and a health hazard on ignorant people such as the subjects of your feature.

Angelo J. Anello, Land O'Lakes

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[Last modified January 20, 2008, 21:15:28]