For many Powell River residents, last spring’s switch to the Multi Material BC extended producer responsibility program felt more like a bait and switch.
Taxpayers were told they would be let off the hook for paying for recycling programs, while the costs would be picked up by companies which create the waste. Those companies would then pass the expense along to consumers—the polluter-pay principle.
The changes were dressed up to show off how the new system would include many items that previously were unrecoverable and had to be landfilled. Residents would be able to finally recycle some items in their curbside blue box that they could not before. But soon after the switch, committed recyclers discovered they were no longer able to blue-box much of what they wanted to continue with, namely worn-out products—particularly those made of plastic. Packaging, as it turns out, as the only plastic that can go through the MMBC program, is not the end all of recycling.
If the last nine months have made anything clear, it is that while making companies responsible for the packaging and waste they create is a step in the right direction, focusing solely on product packaging does not go far enough.
As a community we need to go beyond extended producer responsibility because little of that emphasizes re-use, repair or redesign of products to make them more environmentally safe.
That’s why a resource recovery centre, like the one envisioned for the old incinerator site, is something that anyone passionate about reducing landfill waste should be excited about.
Ladysmith’s Peerless Road Recycling Centre, built last spring with money from the federal and provincial governments as well as Cowichan Valley Regional District, is one of the province’s most innovative residential recycling facilities. And the circumstances of its construction are similar to ours. It was built to cap 45,000 cubic metres of old incinerator ash and was constructed with recycled metals and concrete. The centre collects organic food waste and accepts hundreds of products and includes a free store, where items in good or repairable condition can be taken away free of charge.
Construction of a resource recovery centre at Powell River’s old incinerator site in addition to botanic gardens would not only solve a decades-long environmental question of how to handle all the contaminated soil at the site, but it would also go a long way in helping the whole region embrace zero-waste.
