WE SHOULDN'T BE PROUD OF KID COPS

Is this America ["Bin There, Done That," New Times, April 20]?

"We ended up creating a bunch of little rrecycling cops. They will lecture
their parents if they throw a can in the garbage. It's been one of the most
successful programs started here," said John Ryan, Cold Canyon Processing
Plant manager.

Now I am all for recycling. I do most of my shopping at thrift stores
rather than suffering the pollution of new fabric and other chemicals in
large single-environment stores or malls. I recycle because I am concerned
about conservation. I even think we ought to be growing hemp to make paper,
rope, and cloth instead of cutting down trees and wearing out our soil
using other crops for cloth. Hemp is a weed, after all.

However, as to the "little recycling cops," all I have to say is I want to
be there when John Ryan is "turned in" to some real cops by a 6-year-old.

Gail Lightfoot, Pismo Beach