Image Credit: FILE PHOTO

PENTICTON - Regional district directors want the province to consider a new direction with respect to its recycling program.

With the Union of B.C. Municipalities Convention coming up in Whistler Sept. 10 to 14, Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen’s Board of Directors are preparing to meet provincial ministers to discuss a number of issues, including possible curbside collection of refundable beverage containers.

A meeting between Minister of Environment George Herman and board members and staffers is being proposed to request the minister ask Encorp and Recycle B.C. to review the benefits of merging the beverage container return program with curbside collection of packaging.

West Bench Director Michael Brydon thinks the idea is a timely one, as annual reports for the two collection agencies show the percentage of materials recovered through each program is nearly identical.

He’s leading the regional district group at the UBCM presentation, and feels if curbside collection results in the same percentage of materials recovered, then removing the deposit on beverage containers makes sense.

Brydon cites the inconvenience of the province’s current deposit system of beverage containers. They require residents to return the containers to a particular place with limited hours and long line ups, in addition to the time and effort it can take to clean, sort and return the containers.

“It’s a cost and benefit thing. On the benefit side, the deposit system has worked well for a number of years to get cans off roads, compared to decades ago. It’s now come to our attention the incentive program is working as well as the education, plus curbside collection program, in terms of getting stuff out of the waste stream and into the recyclable diversion stream,” he says.

"If both systems are equally good, maybe we can do even better with improvements to curb side collection. Plus, it’s very expensive to run two parallel recycling systems, and it creates confusion among residents,” he says.

Brydon says taking cans and bottles to the depot is more of problem in rural areas, because there aren’t as many charitable opportunities for residents to get rid of deposit recyclables.

At the same time, there are trucks already making runs into the rural areas to pick up other recyclables.

Michael Brydon, RDOS Director.

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“It would just be a lot more efficient to have one stream of recycling for everything. And it would be easier to get people to adopt the proper habits,” he says, noting the program as it is now can be quite confusing as to what belongs in which recycle program.

He also addressed a common criticism that removing deposits would put some lower income groups out of a job of picking up discarded recyclable containers for their deposit value. Brydon says he believes society could do a better job in creating more meaningful work for people than going through garbage containers and wandering the streets for deposit nickels and dimes.

It would also impact hundreds of small private businesses in the province operating an Encore outlet. The implications to the Encore system would have to be considered along with any benefits derived from making deposit containers part of the curbside collection.

“The can thing has a legacy, it’s been around a long time, people are familiar with the deposit system. But I think this is good news, that we’re at a point in our society where enough people understand how to recycle, we don’t need to use incentives like a nickel or dime here and there. We’ve accomplished the same thing with education,” Brydon says.

The directors hope to convince the minister to write a letter to Encore and Recycle B.C. to consider the potential of having beverage containers collected through the Recycle B.C. residential collection program.

A summary of the findings would then be requested from the two organizations, who would report to the minister and the province’s regional districts.

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