Category Archives: Waste

Folk U: Cortes Waste & Recycling Demystified

Originally published on Cortes Radio.ca

There was music. Miyako Reid talked about her garden, chickens and other aspects of her life on Cortes. The feature presentation on the June 26th Folk U Friday was ‘Cortes Waste & Recycling Demystified.’

As people get more waste conscience, the people on Cortes Island can be proud to know that they have one of the most successful waste diversion programs in the region. And BC has created successful programs to deal with their waste, so that there are still markets for the recycling in BC despite unstable global systems.

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New System for collecting garbage from Cortes Island government docks

Billie Fleming runs a local waste allocation facility – processing garbage and recycling. She has been collecting garbage at the docks around Cortes for over four years. 

Cortes Currents learned that there are some changes coming to the dock garbage collection service.

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Coastal communities ‘fed up’ with B.C. shellfish sector’s plastics problem

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Coastal communities are tired of paying to clean up plastic and debris from the B.C. shellfish industry to protect the marine environment, stewardship groups say.

The amount of garbage being retrieved from beaches in areas where shellfish aquaculture is concentrated grows year after year, and there’s little apparent enforcement by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to deal with the issue, said Dorrie Woodward, chair of the Association for Denman Island Marine Stewards (ADIMS).

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Majority of shipping containers aboard MV Zim Kingston still missing

By Melissa Renwick, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It’s been three months since 109 shipping containers were knocked from a cargo ship traveling through rough seas off the west coast of Vancouver Island, yet the location of all but four remain unknown.

Ashley Tapp, co-founder of Epic Exeo, said her initial optimism that the ship’s owner would be held accountable for the missing containers has begun to fade. 

“I’m starting to get pretty discouraged,” she said. 

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Waste management centre struggles with population growth, constantly evolving recycling rules

By Greg Osoba, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Cortes Island’s population swells in the summer months from 1,000 year-round residents to at least 3,000 with the influx of friends, family and tourists. Every year, the sheer volume of solid waste and items for recycling overwhelms staff at the island’s waste management centre.

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