A consulting firm tasked by Powell River Regional District to run a waste education program has ended its contract.
The regional district awarded a contract to BHC Consulting, a company owned by Coco Hess, in 2011. That contract was renewed for two years starting in 2013. Hess manages the Let’s Talk Trash team, which includes Abby McLennan, Tai Uhlmann and Inger-Lise Burns.
Hess’s life is moving in another direction, she said, and she is now teaching for the National Outdoor Leadership School. “I’ll be sailing and teaching leadership skills and wilderness education,” she said. “Because a lot of the work that I do is abroad, it would be too hard for me to continue to manage and administer while I’m away.” For a variety of reasons, no one on the team is able to continue the work she has done, Hess explained.
The team is having a farewell event from 1 to 4 pm on Thursday, October 3 at the compost education centre, located in the garden at Powell River Community Resource Centre at 4752 Joyce Avenue.
The solid waste management plan currently mandates that the regional district deliver a waste management education program, said Hess, adding what is in question is whether or not that remains the same with the Multi-Material BC (MMBC) program. MMBC is an industry stewardship group formed by retailers and other packaging producers, slated to take responsibility for collecting and recycling packaging of all sorts by next May as a result of new provincial regulations.
“How changes with MMBC affect the waste management education program is unknown,” Hess said.
What is also unknown is how the regional district will respond, said Hess. “They have lost their contractor and their choice now is how to continue a waste management education program,” she said. “We expect that it will continue.”
Al Radke, the regional district’s chief administrative officer, said that until the regional district knows what happens with the MMBC initiative, it’s too early to know what will happen with the waste education program. “It would be my plan to recommend to the board that we continue some form or fashion of Let’s Talk Trash, pretty much in the same vein that they have been going, with maybe just a slight modification to accompany what the new business model of recycling may look like,” he said.
