Re: Vandals attempt to justify deeds,” May 6
I was appalled to read about A&W spraying bleach on their garbage, and even more shocked at the tone of the article, which never once challenged the horrific practices of yet another greedy corporation. As if selling greasy sawdust burgers to the unsuspecting public wasn’t bad enough.
Spraying bleach or ammonia on food wastage is not standard operating procedure for restaurants and food services — I know that because I work in the industry.
Letting people dumpster dive will not result in some sort of third world tent city in the back alley.
As for animals, closing the lid on the bin should be good enough.
The article also insinuates that raccoons are smarter than homeless people. Perhaps the stench of rancid meat offsets the scent of bleach, making the chemicals undetectable to humans.
The only other company I have heard of using chemicals on waste food is the British frozen food company known as Iceland. Here is commentary from an article on the incident:
“Glenn Pougnet, director of the charity StreetSmart, which helps get homeless people off the streets, said food which was normally thrown away could be a great help to people on the streets.
“Use by and best before dates have been criticized in the past for being overly conservative and wasting food that is perfectly healthy but only looks less appetizing.
“According to the Food Standards Agency, around a third of the food bought by households is thrown away and ‘most of this could have been eaten.’”
Perhaps A&W could introduce humane transient traps. The lid could be rigged to automatically slam shut on whoever jumps into the container, sending a signal to local law enforcement. The transients could then be tagged and collared and dropped off beyond city limits.
Shannon Shapovalov, Nelson