IT WAS REFRESHING TO LEARN that Amaranth Township has come on board in the county-wide curbside/roadside pickup of three streams of household waste.

Amaranth was one of two townships not participating in Dufferin's waste handling programs. We commend the council for its decision to provide pickup of solid household waste, recyclable household waste, and organics. This leaves Melancthon as the only remaining holdout, but it is our understanding that that township is likely to join in later this year.

Although we appreciate the views of opponents of rural garbage collection - those who consider the garbage days as something of an outing at which they meet and greet their neighbours - we have to think of weekly trips to the dump in the same light as those long-ago visits to the bank for cash withdrawals to pay the monthly utility bills, or as periodic trips to the post office for stamps to mail the payments.

Electronic deposits of salaries, coupled with debit cards and online banking, have made routine banking trips and the purchase of stamps unnecessary. Many people, especially commuters with precious little time to spend with their families, shouldn't be burdened with the constraint of a weekly trip to the garbage dump.

That said, we would hope that the provision of total household waste pickup in seven of Dufferin's eight municipalities would be a step toward formal county responsibility for garbage disposal and - most importantly - participation of all municipalities in a program of gasification.

Energy from waste (EFW) has been talked about in Dufferin since the late 1980s. Electrical energy produced from garbage that would otherwise have gone to a costly landfill site could be sold to Ontario Power Authority under a standard offer program for something like 11 cents a kwh.

The City of Ottawa has taken advantage of the provincial program, and Dufferin appears in a position to follow suit - if all eight municipalities get their heads together on the concept.

We do commend Amaranth Council for having taken a step in the right direction. We would urge all the municipal councils to consider going a few steps beyond.