OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to Residents slam Polyethics over ‘uncomfortable’ odour in area.
I was so pleased to see this story in OrilliaMatters today!
I have been meaning to contact Polyethics Industries for about a year to ask (and complain) about the putrid smell that is emitted from the plant. I bike on the trail in the area of Polyethics regularly and most days I try to hold my breath as I cycle past this industrial plant. I have wondered about how the neighbours can withstand the smell, which is so pervasive.
To me, it smells like some kind of air freshener product that is used to mask a more toxic substance or smell – similar to the toxic air fresheners that you often find in hotel rooms or hanging from rearview mirrors in cars.
To find out that the smell is apparently a lavender product that is used to produce scented garbage bags is both laughable and bizarre. Are you kidding me? You are polluting the neighbourhood and trail to produce scented garbage bags?
Polyethics says they are going to study the problem and conduct odour testing. This will take up to 26 weeks. Ridiculous. As one neighbour said, “The solution is to stop the production.”
On behalf of everyone who uses the trail alongside Polyethics, I would like to thank the neighbours who voiced their concerns regarding this odour pollution and I hope their efforts will result in a more timely solution.
Who the heck needs scented garbage bags anyway?
Kathy Hunt
Orillia