Letters: Questions about kerbside waste collection

Whanganui District Council is asking for feedback on kerbside waste collection. Photo / NZME

In last weekend's Whanganui Chronicle (April 2), Whanganui District Council invited feedback on its kerbside recycling and food waste schemes.

In the advertisement (p17) there is a prominent question mark next to each scheme. Perhaps the council or its councillors could answer a few questions publicly through this column?

To collect landfill waste, currently five trucks noisily traipse through our small cul-de-sac each week.

1. How many extra trucks can we expect from July 2024 in order to collect the recycling waste? Currently, I compost my food waste and sort and deliver my recycling.

2.Can I opt out of the kerbside scheme and reduce my household rates? (Currently estimated to add nearly $200 a year to my rates).

3. Are there plans to close Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre?

4. Will there be a council-run green waste facility for the foreseeable future?

5. What about oil, metal, and battery disposal?

JOHN MALCOLM
Whanganui

Talk about mental health

I just want to pause and acknowledge all those celebrities, sportspeople, people of prominence and even royalty who have spoken up and shared publicly the difficulties they've experienced in their battles with mental health issues.

It's largely thanks to them and their courage that those of us who have experienced similar, are now able to hold our heads high and feel, in the current social climate, a larger sense of acceptance and, most importantly, are able to accept ourselves, with stronger resilience and self-belief.

Mental health issues are about personal struggles and we all have those at times.

It becomes difficult for those who have such struggles, when what is going on within doesn't reflect what's happening in the immediate environment; so that, as just one example, intense anxiety can be felt even when surrounded by good friends and a loving family ... it appears to be the case for such people, that the pressures of life generally have created for them a personal reality that is unrelated to the reality of the present moment environment, the here and now.

These sorts of dysfunction are not uncommon I believe, as I know from my own sharing with others who, though not previously identifying their difficulties as mental health issues, they do disclose that their struggles are very closely akin to my own.

This highlights to me that we all, especially in these difficult times, need to be understanding and caring for each other in this journey, particularly as we are able to recognise much of ourselves, in the disclosures of those who openly acknowledge their mental health battles. Much needed in the world from my perspective.

PAUL BABER
Aramoho