The editor:
Brian Zinchuk, like many others in our great province of Saskatchewan, seemingly has a deep-seeded animosity towards the west coast.
I can relate – the west coast weather is nicer, the landscape is prettier, and the residents' arrogance about their tree-hugging morality is grating. It's no surprise the type of individual who lives in British Columbia is incompatible with the Saskatchewan lifestyle.
Where we don short-sleeved shirts and shorts while the outdoor temperature barely breaches the freezing point of water, west coast hippies don thick coats and rev their heaters into high gear.
If the individual reading last week's paper was as disappointed as I was, they might want thoughts on the subject that have more meat to chew on. Here's my take on the matter.
Vancouver's disposable plastics ban makes a lot of sense for the city. Trash is constantly washing ashore on their beaches and littering is a perpetual issue in a city so big. Littering is no foreign to problem to us in Estevan either; I dread the moment our winter snow melts away to reveal the garbage buried in the snowbanks by our residents.
The plastics ban isn't going to solve the littering problem, but that was never the problem being solved. The issue being tackled here is the ecological impact of humans. Straws, cups and grocery bags can be made from compostable and/or biodegradable materials which can cause less harm to or even be beneficial to our planet.
Many of Vancouver's establishments have already been using these alternative material replacements anyways, so this kind of bylaw comes without surprise. Prices likely increased by a few dimes to compensate for the greener alternatives, but it's a price Vancouverites were willing to pay.
This bylaw doesn't solve global warming, it doesn't solve littering and it doesn't prevent India or China from spewing more pollution into our atmosphere than Canada and the United States of America combined. The grandstanding British Columbia's hippie squad have been doing about this bylaw is annoying, but they're not wrong when they say this is a good step towards protecting the Earth we live on.
I think Estevan - and Brian Zinchuk - should look a little closer at the bylaw and analyze our own waste management. Maybe if we strip away the west coast goodie-two-shoes arrogance and extinguish our own short fuses we might learn a thing or two.
Elizabeth Dubowski
Estevan
