Excellent Entry … I was chatting to a mate yesterday. He came up with a very good idea. It fits with the efforts you are putting into the waste free WA project. You may like to pass it on or freely share. Here goes: What if instead of wasting money on speeding, parking and other traffic fines we just issued community work orders and get offenders to work on the roads. We could issue two types of work to be done. First a certain number hours AND/OR kilograms of roadside litter collection to be done within a prescribed time and delivered to a local recycling plant by hand. Second a certain number of native trees, grasses or wildflowers to be planted along roadsides AND/OR a number of hours to be spent tending road side gardens with a prescribed time. The seedlings could be provided by APACE or similar community based native nurseries. Where offenders fail to perform work orders well or in the prescribed time their driver’s licences could be suspended or voluntarily yielded until they conform to community satisfaction.

This idea could see a greater respect for:

a. the social environments that are our roads;
b. the natural environments that are our roadsides; and
c. the economic environment that tries to support the two without waste.

It would also cut a lot of waste in things like printing fines and collecting money that could go to reducing waste in other ways. Plus the sight of remorseful community workers making amends for bad driving habits would be a real Road-Side Attraction! Sweet Justice for us all. I trust you see the promise in the idea.

See you later today.

Yours in excellence
pad Bennett