One person’s trash…
ARE there always two ways of looking at things?
P Fletcher (Herald letters, August 2, 2014) bewails the “desperadoes” who removed his/her “unrepairable, incomplete or damaged … junk”. Apparently these would have recouped council pickup costs by the sale of recyclable materials, whereas the desperadoes sell them to unsuspecting buyers.
We, on the other hand are delighted to see our rejects collected by those who can find a genuine use for them either as is or by repairing them—that is true recycling.
I can not speak for Cockburn but in Fremantle the goods/junk are collected by front end loaders—thus minimising any likelihood of recovery/recyclability. Similarly, we have been happy to collect materials for our outdoors activities including cubby houses, cable reels [makes fabulous table] and good chairs with daggy covers.
In turn, collectors have taken old CGI [too little for scrap metal collectors], a working fridge [that needed all replacement shelves, costing more than the value of the fridge], non-working electrical tools [someone else can fix them], etc. Of more concern to me are the vandals who just demolish items and leave them for collection/dumping by council.
Jim Meckelburg
Davies St, Beaconsfield

Double-fault
IT seems our metropolitan netball teams are going to get hit with a double whammy.
Not only has fire destroyed their new facility in Jolimont, the Fremantle players are soon to have nearly all their parking removed alongside the Gibson Park courts as the government pushes ahead with its expensive folly of the ill-conceived Perth Freight Link.
While a practical and viable alternative is available to solve the increasing Fremantle container terminal road and rail freight problem and our long term transport needs in that region, it appears no politician is prepared to take a step back and, as our emperor has recently insisted “Have a look at the bigger picture”.
Daryl Binning
Norton Ridge, Winthrop

Unsustainable surrender
WHEN did Fremantle council give up on sustainability?
I attended the council community information evening July 29 for what was effectively an incinerator proposal somewhere in Kwinana to sustainably incinerate Fremantle’s domestic waste without spreading toxic particulates and ash over the neighbourhood!
Apparently, this is now part of the Fremantle council sustainability agenda—sustainably out of sight.
No strategy based on reuse, recycle, reimagine, reconstruct, redesign. Nope. Too hard. No strategy to push hard for a container deposit system in WA to link with South Australia. No strategy to extend the principle of producer responsibility to cover electronic waste—including the first wave of solar panels (yes, you can!).
No requirement for a genuine sustainability assessment on incineration to consider the embedded energy of waste versus the calorific value. No consideration of resource efficiency and social impacts.
Not even a real community engagement strategy to facilitate a social licence to operate. No ability for the community to provide input on suitable technology, waste management priorities, site selection criteria for new treatment plants.
All in all, it would appear that in Fremantle council, sustainability is now the new Mickey Mouse…but what cute ears!
Ross Belton
Bitton St, Hamilton Hill 

Pick on the pollies first
ANDREW FORREST’S idea of controlling how welfare recipients spend their welfare is not new, but has merit.
Before we get stuck into welfare recipients, how about a policy for politicians to control how they blow taxpayers’ money on themselves and unwanted developments and monuments to themselves. Like Elizabeth Quay, sports stadiums, heavy freight roads, forced council amalgamations, overseas junkets and no doubt excessive pay rises.
Brad Capes
Prospero Cres, Coolbellup

Squawking hypocrisy
I READ with fond memories of my own childhood holidays to country farms while growing up in Sydney about an initiative to send WA city kids out to country farms for a week to learn about where food comes from.
What a great idea. It is on trial in WA and NSW, supported by Rabobank and presumably with the support of the WA department of education.
I couldn’t believe the hypocrisy when I read the front page story of my local Herald (“Fowl fencing”, July 26, 2014).
I wondered how the “liability-shy shiny bums in East Perth” are happy to support farm placements (BTW good on them) yet thought a city vegie patch and a few chooks was a risk too great. I’m sure the $8500 fence bill could go a long way to supporting the country student placement program.
Peter Spencer
Wray Ave, Fremantle

Tragic, but no accident
THE deaths of 298 people aboard the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 is both catastrophic and tragic. It cannot be regarded as an “unfortunate accident” as was the case when an Iranian airline was destroyed by a missile fired from a US warship in 1988.
The statement from the US president Mr Obama that the downing of MH17 was a “mistake” by ill-trained rebels continues to make political capital out of this tragedy. The flight from Amsterdam which ended in tragedy had its usual flight path altered at a very late stage such that it crossed the area where there was, and still is, fierce conflict. This alteration could not have been as a result of an instruction from either the people of the Donetsk region, nor for that matter, Russia. And it could not have been from the Malaysian airline itself. The source of this decision needs to be completely clarified. This has not been helped by the removal of the conversations between air traffic control in Kiev and the pilot of the stricken airline before international experts could assess the recordings.
Why did Kiev authorities remove the recordings from the control tower which had ordered the change in both the flight path and the height the airline was travelling, from 35,000 feet to 32,000 feet? The Malaysian airline has no element of blame for this tragedy and certainly had nothing whatever to gain. Sixty of its aviation experts have now been held up in Kiev for three days waiting to proceed to the crash site. Malaysian officials have now independently arrived in Donetsk and have received most of the human remains and the “black box” recorders from the stricken aircraft. The Kiev authorities have not been prepared to declare a cease-fire in the area of the crash which, prior to the downing of the flight, had been the site of very intense bombing by its air force.
Alexander Borodai, self-proclaimed prime minister of what he calls the Donetsk Peoples Republic, called for a ceasefire to allow international experts to examine the site. He makes the point that with delay the whole crash site degrades, making any conclusions more difficult. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose by this and has wanted the arrival of the international experts.
There are 14 observers from ISCE who were there within 48 hours of the tragedy. They have been provided with accommodation and security in this war zone by the so-called DPR. Our government has rushed to judgement on this tragedy, candidly blaming Russia and at the same timing joining the press in demonising Vladimir Putin. No evidence has been provided about Russia’s culpability in this tragedy. Neither Russia nor indeed Mr Putin have anything to gain in being a party to downing air flight MH17.
Dr John Troy, Fremantle
The Ed says: Dr Troy is a former state Labor MP for Fremantle. This letter has been edited to reflect that the “Donetsk Peoples Republic” is not internationally recognised.