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take5.ca
APRIL 2022
Trash talk! A world of garbage BY KERITH WADDINGTON “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” That old proverb, which means that what one person finds useless someone else might highly prize, has never been truer. As the world necessarily heads towards reusing and recycling, lest we drown in our own garbage, items that used to be considered “useless” are now valued, and valuable. Plastic bottles, old metal or wooden bedframes, banana peels and potato skins, ripped couches and broken electronics — almost anything ever made contains potential, even after the original purpose for which it was built or grown has passed. And thanks to exceptional efforts by both the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) and the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD), with their multiple drop-off depots and curbside three-stream collection program, consumers have multiple opportunities
Peerless Recyclimg Centre. Photo courtesy of CVRD
to reduce waste and keep the environment clean. Numbers coming from the RDN are impressive. To start with, the RDN boasts a diversion rate of 68+ per cent, making the RDN a world leader in waste diversion. In fact, the success of the regional food waste and recycling programs, first introduced in 2009, has extended the operational life of the Regional Landfill by several decades: once slated for closure by 2016, it is now expected to remain operational until the early 2040s. It gets better.
Ben Routledge, manager of Solid Waste Services for the RDN, expects two new bylaws, currently waiting for ministerial approval, to be passed later this year that will help the District reach its 2029/30 goal of 90 per cent waste diversion. Those bylaws include “mandatory waste source separation” (meaning businesses and multi-family dwellings will be compelled to use the three-bin system: garbage, compost and recycling) and “waste hauler licensing” (which supports commercial waste haulers by reducing their tipping fees, provided their loads contain less than 20