Category Archives: Waste

Rivers & Oceans, Waste

A new marine waste pick up service gets underway

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

The Comox Strathcona Waste Management Centre on Vancouver Island is launching a new marine waste eco pick up service next week.

Services Coordinator Stephanie Valdal says the centre will send trucks with large bins to communities to pick up marine waste that has been collected by individuals, community groups and First Nations. She adds that at this point the service will be by request and will be monitored to measure demand.

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Waste

New Cortes Island Curbside Pick-up program officially started

The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) plan to increase the yield of recyclable materials, collected by the curbside pick-up program on Cortes Island, officially went into effect yesterday. 

Engineering Services Coordinator Sheena Fisher gave the Electoral Area Services Committee (EASC) an update at their May 10 meeting.

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Politics, Waste

Mark Vonesch: Saving the Cortes curbside recyclable pick-up subsidy

One of the hot topics for Cortes residents, at the April 12 Electoral Areas Services Committee (EASC) meeting, was garbage pick-up. We may soon be asked to pay another $43 per household for a service many of us do not use. This is the amount Recycle BC is currently subsidizing our garbage collection program. They are threatening to withdraw that subsidy, but Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Island, believes the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) will come up with a plan that will satisfy Recycle BC.

On January 25, SRD staff met with Recycle BC representatives to discuss the fact that the curbside pickup on Cortes Island is not delivering the amount of recyclables they expect. They want Cortesians to put out a minimum of 67 kg per household, which means that virtually 100% of the recyclables currently taken to the Cortes Recycling Depot would have to be left at the curb. The SRD was given until April 15 to come up with a draft plan to increase the volume.

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Food, Waste

A third of North Americans throw out $3,000 of unused groceries every year.

Originally published on Talker

Editor’s note: While the topic is food waste, the following article may throw some light upon Recycle BC’s expectation that Cortes Island residents increase the volume of recyclables that go into curbside pick-up. There undoubtedly are some Cortesians who waste up to $63 of food a week (as is the case with our American neighbours cited in the following article), but there are probably also a significant number that waste little, if any, food.

3 months worth of garbage for two people – Photo by Roy L Hales

This is the amount of garbage one Cortes household of two produced in about 3 months. Do Cortesians, collectively, also throw out a significantly lower amount of recyclables than society as a whole? Does Recycle BC have unrealistic expectations of the volume of recyclables Cortes Island should produce?

The average American spends nearly $3,000 a year on unused groceries, according to new research.

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Waste

If recycling negotiations fail, Cortesians could pay another $43 per household

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Depending on the outcome of negotiations, many Cortes Island residents could end up paying another $43 for the garbage pick-up that they do not use. The problem is too many of us are taking our recyclables directly to the Cortes Island Waste Management Centre.

According to Wolfang Parada, Senior Manager of Engineering Services for the Strathcona Regional District (SRD), Cortes Island currently receives about $29,000 a year in incentives from Recycle BC. Unfortunately, a large number of Cortes residents do not use the curbside pick-up program. We may have the lowest volume per resident in the province.  Consequently, Cortes may lose its cash incentives.

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