Letters to the Editor: California might need a ballot initiative to fix recycling

To the editor: I have been saying for years that we should ban plastic containers and allow only aluminum, glass or paper to be used for packaging. I do my best to avoid buying anything in plastic packaging, but with its widespread use, I still cannot completely avoid it. (“The EPA’s new recycling plan is straight out of 1985,” editorial, Nov. 24)

I clean everything that goes into my recycling bin, hoping that my trash will not be sent to a landfill. Others who don’t bother to do this contaminate recyclable material, which ends up in a landfill.

If we do not ban plastic packaging we should at least require that the plastic packaging be made from recycled materials with minimal amounts of new plastic.

Another major problem is the closure of recycling buyback locations. With no place to redeem the container deposits, we are in effect paying another tax, and homeless people lose a source of income. For some reason, I do not expect our representatives in Sacramento to fix this problem.

I would be in favor of a ballot initiative to suspend the container deposit in any location where the deposit cannot be redeemed nearby. I still remember taking bottles back to the supermarket from where I bought them when I was growing up. We need to get this fixed.

Allen Peery, La Crescenta