When Falmouth issued every household a trash and recycling bin, my first thought was, “I bet the sale of yellow bags goes down with all these lid-covered trash receptacles.”

Fast forward to the Northern Forecaster, Feb. 20, and “Falmouth Town Council mulls future of trash program.”

In searching for solutions for the problems of increased trash and decreased bag revenue, several remedies have been suggested, but all seem wanting.

To increase the cost of the yellow bags would just punish the people who follow the rules while doing nothing to discourage the folks who don’t use the bags. (As usual, punish the law abiders.)

To raise property taxes would eliminate one of the reasons the bag charge was instituted in the first place. It encouraged people to throw out less trash. (Less trash = fewer bags = savings.)

The idea of eliminating the yellow plastic bags raises the question, “How will folks package their trash?” I believe most will still put their trash in some kind of plastic bag since garbage is so messy. Do you really want loose garbage thrown directly into the trash bins with the resulting residual gunk? (Will Falmouth be addressing health hazards next?)

My suggestion: Mount a camera or cameras on the garbage trucks that capture the dump of the receptacle. If no yellow shows, the address is noted. A fine would then be charged to the violator. (Am sure some IT person could create a smooth system to accomplish this.)

Whatever the council decides, I hope it is fair to all the residents of Falmouth.

Gerald Caruso
Falmouth