To the editor:

I wanted to comment on the recent quote in the Lawrence Journal-World regarding trash collection by City Commissioner Bob Schumm: “It will make us a greener and a better community, and you’re going to love yourself more as a result of it.”

If I have learned anything, it would be anytime I hear that kind of talk coming from any part of government, it generally means I’m going to get less, pay more and be inconvenienced. For me personally, my weekly trash fits in a 36-gallon trash can that stores easily in my garage.

I’ve thought about it and I can’t seem to figure out how walking outside to the front of my house to discard a kitchen size trash bag into a big green container rather than opening a door from my kitchen to my garage and placing it into the trash can is going to make me feel greener, better or allow me to love myself more than I already do.

The real point is, how much time and money has been spent on an issue that, frankly, had a predetermined outcome as many do in Lawrence. For heaven’s sake, just call it what it is. The city wants or needs to raise the cost of services. It wants to control how much trash you set on the curb and thereby in time require city-mandated recycling.