qathet Regional District (qRD) directors will respond to an email sent by a local schoolteacher about the discontinuation of collecting industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) recycling, which is now being sent to landfill.
At the October 23 committee of the whole meeting, directors reviewed correspondence from École Côte-du-Soleil kindergarten and grade one teacher Anastasiya Dyka concerning cessation of paper waste collection at the school.
“As an educational institution, we are committed not only to the academic development of our students, but also to instilling in them important values, such as environmental responsibility and sustainable practices,” stated Dyka. “A key part of this is teaching our students about the importance of recycling and their role in protecting the environment.
“The decision to discontinue paper waste collection is deeply concerning, as it directly contradicts our efforts to model green leadership and demonstrate best practices for waste reduction and recycling.”
Electoral Area D director and committee chair Sandy McCormick said the regional district should reply to Dyka because she is concerned about her school and the message it sends to the students by putting the waste into landfill.
“I would like to send a response that explains this is a decision of Recycle BC, not of qathet Regional District,” said McCormick.
City of Powell River director Cindy Elliott said she was in favour of responding to Dyka and also in favour of the regional district having a better explanation for everybody who is impacted by the decision.
“There’s a lot of confusion out there,” said Elliott. “The regional district is in charge of [solid] waste and we are trying to do recycling programs, but to date, we have been utilizing a provincial program that has disallowed this. We haven’t identified any other streams for it.”
Elliott made a motion to send correspondence to Dyka. The motion carried.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he is frustrated with the discontinued collection of ICI products for recycling.
“It’s sending mixed messages,” added Gisborne. “This is a provincial decision, not a local one.”
Gisborne then made a motion that the committee recommend the regional board direct staff to inform the public regarding the ending of ICI packaging and paper products.
Manager of environmental services Jason Kouwenhoven said there had previously been a regional board report addressing the changes to recycling and the regional district also issued a media release at that time.
Elliott said the regional district was trying to get to zero waste and wants recycling to occur, so what are the options for the school?
“What are we proposing that they do?” asked Elliott. “From my understanding, there is nothing they can do.”
Kouwenhoven said in the first paragraph of the previous media release, it indicates that all those recyclable materials, temporarily, need to go to landfill.
City director George Doubt said the public doesn’t know what is going on with paper waste.
“They’ve come to us because we have a nice, shiny new resource-recovery centre and a zero waste policy, which is being contradicted from the provincial point of view,” said Doubt. “We owe the public some kind of logical answer about what they can do with paper.”
Gisborne said it is important to spell out that this is a Recycle BC, provincial decision, and if the members of the public wish to have their voices heard, they should reach out to new Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Randene Neill to put pressure on the provincial government.
The committee voted to recommend the regional board launch a campaign to inform the public about the discontinuation of ICI recycling.
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