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Clueless in NOrth Andover
Ted Tripp

No, this is not about the school department’s fantasy budget. There will be plenty of “good stuff” to report on that subject next month in The Valley Patriot.

This month we want to revisit trash. Early last month the North Andover Solid Waste Committee/Recycling Committee enclosed a copy of its latest flyer in the local daily paper.

And there on the lower front page of the newsletter was the story, “Does North Andover Need PAYT?  The time for Pay As You Throw may be now.”

The only expression I could muster at the time was … Disbelief!!

It has been just six months since the town resoundingly defeated a trash fee/tax at a raucous town meeting of 3000 people and now proponents of the fee think the town should revisit the issue. (Here I will pause as you catch your breath or finish laughing.)

The article starts by saying we still have a trash generation problem – although North Andover significantly reduced its trash amounts this past year. It goes on to say that PAYT addresses the issue of fairness. By this the committee means that we all pay the same for trash removal whether we throw out ten bags of trash a week or only one. This, the committee seems to conclude, is unfair.

I can actually agree with the committee on this latter point. But if this applies to trash, should it not also apply to other services? For example, we all pay the same taxes to support the education of our children. Yet I have no children in the schools – and never had – so shouldn’t I be exempt from paying this portion of my tax bill? After all, for fairness, we should expect only those households with children in the schools to pay for the school budget. And, of course, the more kids you have, the more you pay.

That would be great for me. It would reduce my tax bill by thousands of dollars. Sounds fair from my perspective.

The article goes on to say “Unfortunately, PAYT was introduced to the taxpayers under very strained circumstances.” I’ll say! The school spending zealots tried to ramrod an unpopular tax/fee through town meeting and the people rose up and said “No way!”

Isn’t it the ultimate hypocrisy that the same people who think that its OK for property taxes to pay for the operation of our schools also think that it’s not OK for those property taxes to pay for trash removal?

Now let’s talk about Global Warming. What, you say, does this have to do with trash?

There is another incredible article in the recycling flyer that implies if North Andover residents don’t a) reuse items that have already been produced, b) recycle paper products and c) compost yard and food wastes, that this will contribute to Global Warming. And the article goes on to say this may lead to “more frequent and intense storms, flooding of low-lying areas, changes in regional weather patterns, and an increase in infectious diseases carried by pests such as mosquitoes.”

Does anybody really believe that by not putting a few more cans or newspapers into your recycle bin every week, you will cause malaria to spread into North Andover? This is what the Global Warming alarmists want you to believe. They want to “scare you” into doing what “they” want you to do. It is all about control and their quest for absolute control.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am all for recycling. Before I moved to North Andover, I lived in Wilmington for 20 years. There I was a member of the recycling committee and volunteered many Saturdays to help run the recycling drop-off center. To me it made sense to recycle items such as glass and newspapers and maybe some plastics.

But recycling should be based on an economic benefit or strategic national need. If it costs less to recycle a product than make it new, then that’s probably a benefit. Also, if recycling some products reduces our energy needs, then that would probably be a strategic national benefit.

Many things don’t make sense to recycle. We don’t recycle plastic foam or thumb tacks, for example, because it costs too much to pick them up and would use far more energy to collect and transport such items to a foam or thumb tacks manufacturer than is required to make new product.

So a good recycling policy should be based on common sense, not some threat of Global Warming.

Too many do-gooders today treat Global Warming as a religion – and they do so because the science isn’t there to support many of the dire predictions. Beware of those preaching such “religious” beliefs to the masses. Step back for a minute and use a little common sense to evaluate the world around you.

Remember, Al Gore is no scientist – but he did attend divinity school at Vanderbilt.


Ted Tripp is an International Consultant in high-tech manufacturing methods. He has BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from MIT. You can reach him at tripp@gis.net.

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The February 2007 Edition of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007
, Valley Patriot, Inc.
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