A local consulting group has successfully bid on a solid waste management education plan contract offered by Powell River Regional District.
BHC Consulting won the contract, which flows from the regional district’s solid waste management plan. Coco Hess and Abby McLennan are BHC.
Hess has over 15 years of consulting experience, mostly in technology consulting and resource and organizational development. She operates the Bluff House in Lund, a guest house/retreat centre. BHC, which stands for Bluff House Creations, is the consulting practice Hess runs out of the house.
McLennan has a background in sustainability sciences and has mostly worked in forestry and sea kayaking. “This is the first time I’ve been able to put my skills and passion to direct use,” McLennan said. “I’m really looking forward to being able to work in the community I’m living in and do something positive for the space where I am.”
Hess said she is known as the Lund dump-run girl, because she runs a weekly run to Augusta Recycling and the waste transfer site. “I go around and collect everyone’s trash,” she said. “I spend an hour or so sorting the recycling and going through and harvesting out what goes to the bottle depot.” She has 18 households on her route and provides the service for donations.
“I love to deal with trash,” said Hess. “I’m passionate about how we manage our waste, mostly because in the last three years, since I’ve lived in Lund, I’ve really decreased the amount of waste.”
The first phase of the project is to design an educational plan. Phase two will be the delivery of the plan, which is scheduled to kickoff late in the spring.
“Right now we have a plan to reach out to youth, businesses and the community,” Hess said. The pair plan to work with School District 47’s sustainable schools initiative and to discuss waste audits with businesses.
Hess and McLennan plan to set up a compost education centre. BHC will also be responsible for facilitating the CAC (composting advisory committee) which will be established by the regional district.
The objective of the project is to create “an innovative, memorable, educational program to deliver sustainable waste management strategies to lead us down the road to zero waste,” according to Hess.
A milestone in their work will be to produce a change in consumer behaviour resulting in a decrease in waste production and an increase in the diversion of products from the waste stream, to reduce pressure on the landfill, conserve scarce resources and preserve the environment. “Behaviour usually doesn’t change without education,” Hess said. “Therefore the heart and soul of the proposed initiatives are to ensure an innovative, creative and efficient waste management education program is implemented region wide.”
Hess and McLennan are proposing to use the “Let’s Talk Trash Team,” spearheaded by three rats who love to talk trash. “Each rat has a specialty of how she likes to approach waste and will create a dialog within the community specific to her topic,” Hess said.
The rats are called ReU, ReDu and Reece.
Hess and McLennan are launching their project at the Powell River Film Festival, which starts Thursday, February 17. They will have a booth that will have many ideas on how to reduce waste.
Interested readers can reach Hess and McLennan at [email protected].
