Dear Editor,
[RE: LETTER: Reader shares recycling concerns, Feb. 6, mapleridgenews.com]
Curbside recycling collection started in 1980 in Maple Ridge. We've come a long way since then; perhaps too far.
All households in Maple Ridge should have received a large brochure effective January - June 2025 delivered by Canada Post.
It required a lot of reading, and it is kept on my recycling table.
It included a crude map displaying different coloured zones with white dots on them signifying on which days the flexible plastics (large red, not pink bins!) will be picked up be a separate truck every other week at perhaps a separate time than the regular recycling truck.
If the flexible plastics bins aren't picked up when you think they should be, perhaps their drivers are confused with the colour zones.
We reside on a cul de sac north of Dewdney Trunk Road, just east of Laity, between Wicklund Avenue and 122 Avenue. As there are no cross streets indicated on the map until 123 Avenue is shown, it was difficult to determine whether were in the deep purple or light purple zone (some might call this lilac!) I have telephoned Remple Disposal twice, who are headquartered in Surrey with a number of questions.
The operator on the telephone was very polite, agreed the map was crude, and that she was not familiar with Maple Ridge. She mentioned that there were a few discrepancies. I then gave her my street address. She said we were in the deep purple zone.
However, the person I put the same question to today said she wasn't sure whether we were in the deep or light purple zone.
If their headquarters aren't sure, then how can their drivers be sure of the correct zones?
I asked a few more questions, and inquired as to where their trucks were coming from. She thought they were coming from Mission.
Also, I discovered that the flexible plastics are recycled at a different depot, due to the nature in which they are recycled. Hence the separate truck.
Was our recycling contracted out to Remple Disposal? If so, was it cheaper to do so?
We wish we could return to our simpler, previous in-house recycling system.
Just do it.
Jeanette Tupper, Maple Ridge
