It must be Monday, garbage day, and the weather blustery. How can I tell? There’s a sprinkling of white, Styrofoam peanuts littering the street and lawn in front of my house, that’s how.

As an added blessing, there’s an oil slick where the garbage truck stopped to make each pick up. The people who pick up garbage have nothing but praise from me, so this isn’t about them. They work very hard, a lot harder than I had to work during my career.

But I do have a problem with those who continue to put Styrofoam peanuts in the garbage and expect them to stay there when transferred to the garbage truck when the wind is blowing. How much effort would be required to put them into a bag before putting them in a garbage can?

For that matter, why does the city allow the use of Styrofoam peanuts for packing material? We no longer permit Styrofoam containers by restaurants. That prohibition results in two very positive results: less Styrofoam in landfills and less Styrofoam litter. The same can be said of a prohibition of those pesky peanuts.

As for the oil slicks left behind by the garbage trucks, that’s just plain negligence by Rabanco. They obviously don’t care that they are polluting by not fixing serious oil leaks in their trucks. If they did care, the leaks wouldn’t exist. I’m not talking about minor leaks.

Now, if you’ll pardon the brevity of this letter, I’m going out to pick up litter.

David Kannas
West Seattle