of the show good morning welcome to changes the program on sustainability i'm susan gregory the coordinating producer of the show and this morning travis barrington  it does seem to be i don't know maybe it's just me because i work in it all the time of the n r e that it seems to be an issue that a lot of people are concerned with as well yeah yes yes absolutely we hear so much information that maybe you know it may be difficult for some people to sort of all oh definitely so hopefully we can clear some of that up today so you know why don't you charlotte and why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be the manager of  you know i'm on the island before that i have yeah my you know i'm we traveled around the island in two thousand and nine and decided that it was the place for us actually i hear a lot of stories like that i'ma i i can see why people come want to come here and it's nice for me hearing that from people because i was born on the island so it's always nice to hear that from people who've come from elsewhere yeah it's a real thrill when just everyone knows a home for you is home for me is dr sharon england ok ok so why don't we get started well one of the things that was in the news not too long ago was this you're always challenging something that i helped out with as well my duties at the nam were cycling a change and just in case some people didn't hear about it why don't we just talk a little bit about that and what that did and what may we found out from a challenge to residents to slim that bin and that really meant them getting in touch with myself and it was a partnership wasn't it between them the city and i know when there were no i'm a recycling exchange and we went out there and we looked at diversion people skip site at the house the household garbage so what we really did was we did a sort of that garbage on the recycling and of the green been to assess how well they were performing us to recycle and then also to see if we could maybe share them give them some more knowledge about what they really could do to recycle and we found out some really interesting things the first thing i really wanted to do was to inspire residents and i hope i did that we got about forty king been slim is in program no  taking part but but most of them did and i actually think they had a really good time and lent some key messages i also managed to find out a little bit more about the barriers to zero waste and that was my second day so what we really found out was that the average final defection right at the cubs site for all been slim is was eighty eight percent and that is how so in theory you know eighty eight percent of all garbage can be recycled or composted when we look at the city we're only actually about sixty percent right now so there's an extra twenty four percent that we could be doing that we're not doing and that's with the system we have right now so so that's really the main thing i learned from this is that we could be doing more with what we have and so my job is to get the word  out as what those things all that we can do and i also want to find some local champions to help residents understand that so that eighty eight percent that you mentioned that was achieved that wasn't just through curbside recycling and curbside organics pick up was it twelve percent i know from myself going on some of these runs and to be blunt it was just sorting through people's garbage when most cases and it was enjoyable work gloves and everything of course but some of the things that stick out in my mind that i would see were that oh no it's my husband who can't be using the thing for yeah one of the types of things and i guess alternatives could there be for items like that right so garbage that still garbage in the city right now or othe ok yeah yeah on the other things i remember seeing was a family that was caring for an elderly and there were some medical items as well bags of of sailing and percent so what i really need to understand is why the difference between the majority of our residents and these people that heroes and harness that knowledge that they have and give back to everybody so that's a big part of my job i'm trying to do and and one change that i made straight away from this after the zero waste challenge was to the garbage and recycling calendar i think it was pretty clear people when aware of what exactly is isn't recyclable so i don't know if you've noticed that there was a change to the calendar it's now got pictures it's not just when you got it is that it's you know pictures about what  and that's been received positively so that's that's one of the change some trying to make is just get the information out that you know actually yeah i think that is so what barriers to your waist interest i think but often there's the barrier to the human behavior aspect of it that's a big one and i know hearing from people doing the challenge a lot of it is time or people with families there's all these little things that come in packages for kids and i see this part of my job takes me to the schools as well when i when i go to schools is yeah the kids bring their lunches in and there's a yogurt container or a cup or something like that and it is recyclable but then you multiply that by fifteen kids it has to be washed in rinsed out that becomes a large barrier as well but i have seen also a lot of classrooms just making that a habit of their lunch time and activity and getting one or two champions like you said in the classroom to take that on you know when you really hondas you know one champions that infuse the awesome it can be quite infectious and when you do make things a happy you know it can make a big change yeah excellent so one of the things though we talk about a few the things that are still down for garbage for your mix things and those items but one of the things and speaking with people here at the radio station as well it came up in emails is the plastic bag dilemma that everyone seems to face and it just seems to be getting more and more complicated as well because they aren't except as a perp site anymore and then you try to multiple times it's still i just you know yeah i don't think that i was prepared for i don't think i expected the level of public upset in the change to the recycling prevents them from being recycled and they also get tangled in other items as well so those items on recycle they all have to go to the landfill so i can assure you that by taking the plastic bags out of the curbside more items are being recycled plastic bags need to be handled on they were it wasn't one of the main things seemingly they were putting out in their recycling so they're upset that those can no longer be taken and then supplementary to that a lot of people were using these clear blue plastic bags that you can buy at the grocery store to contain your cycling and those were tied at the top and their recycling pun tractor would just throw them straight into the back of the vehicle and now that can't be done either because you know they're obviously a plastic bag so so my most recent media release was around placement of recycling if you leave them open what he'll do is just empty it right into the truck and you can also put out recycling in the yellow bag which is the favorable for free from any city facility or in a clearly marked rigid rigid container and a good thing to do with there they do have to be sorted and staff will help you with that plastic bags is still the number one thing we deal with too with sorting and things like that and i think we should be clear that most what you were talking about applies to the white plastic grocery bag yes grocery bags but yes there is a whole other layer on top of that of india yes there is that we deal with at the n r a and i'm sure you've heard about as well the plastic bags that praties bags from the store or the the plastic bags that have prepackaged salads or or prepackaged amounts of carrots or anything like that from the store those are also a different thing but i think they can be recycled the same as the grocery bags they can be there is a difference that i mean the around tee boxes and yes you know you get crinkly stuff like that they'll take those two yeah that is kind of the main difference it's been hard and it's one of those things where if it's your job like you're not yeah we can know the difference between and spend you know  crinkly plastic does that include things like the candy wrapper stuff that drives everybody crazy in the theater or something like that you know because that's the sort of thing that i also find on more basic kinds of food and those are the types of things that i put in the garbage thinking that they're not recyclable so where do you draw the line those small kind of if it was like a clear like for granola bars and chips there garbage yeah i have been reading some things there are some pilot projects of people getting at least covering the aluminum out of those wow but it is a very intensive process and it requires very specific sorting if somebody would who want a pilot project that here might be interesting but it's a ways away i think it's one of those things where we have to learn to move on to a different type of packaging and most things that are individually wrapped too like the candy bars are like little candies you get from the restaurant when you leave i you know i can't i know that they probably can be with yeah even me i usually just throw them in the garbage really  yeah it's one of those things it's very marginal yeah yeah oh but there are there are a number of things because i think of bags that spaghetti comes in for example or some of the rice packages and you know even those basic things those i would like to just touch on though that the idea of some places have had in past bans on bags yeah and these bans usually only cover again the types of bags that are given away at grocery stores they don't they wouldn't cover the bags that are in the stores for the past as in all the things we just talked about this would just be the ones you take home yeah is there any sort of rumbling about that here or is there any support for it or do you do you think they work or i think they work back home well say back home it was  island actually where i saw it where i was that when you're on vacation i was given a plastic bag at the grocery store and the next year when i went back there was the back and they were giving out paper work because it was monday at a high level and all they grocery stores had to work in that way and it worked and that was i'm a middle time measure i think where they start charging for the bags so they kind of already tried to wean people off that habit get people into the habit of bringing along that cloth bags but i've seen it work and i know it's working here in canada i think it's to run talk down the say i'm in the states that is there's of the city seattle and moving in that way over the other means policies in washington state l a has done it some from cisco and i think portland oregon as well so they all wear king i like so whether or not that's something for nine oh really we need to hear what residents want yeah this is one of those things we keep hearing about is just in our regular circles this is concern over bag so i was just curious what the thought was there and if i know they're very visible type of litter and garbage and things like that but do they actually make up a large bowl they seem like they're ever do they make up a think people are trying to reuse them as well which which is always great get a few uses out of it first before you do landfill it but yeah i would say the you know it must have gone to the one fellow that i don't have figures on that ok is there any this last thing through bringing on multum a terrible b c which is the stewardship program for printed paper packaging so it would have to be a change at that level right ok it sounds almost like it would have to be picked up separately too you'd have to people would have to sort that at home and put it into a separate back well some people actually do put their garbage out in a grocery bag because they only have a little bit yeah so if they put their grocery bags into grocery bag and just left those by the curb side it just would mean i'm guessing as separate been in the truck to take them so that you didn't have that falling of the machinery problem yeah at this stage the city isn't prepared you know for that you know we don't have the vehicles to be able to offer that but you know what if that changes made about something with council that we would have to look at whether or not oh happens when i really don't january now and you know i was glad she was able to be recognized for her efforts and recycling yeah i imagine that has to you also go beyond just recycling go into choices that she makes when she's purchasing things as well i would have said so you know i mean like you would you touch them before if you have a young family there are some items that you know you probably going to have to avoid if you want to hit zero waste baby food now is coming in these horrible for oil squeegee packets that kind of for you and plastic and  those really are not recycled or they're a compass it made to put to materials and that's one thing that's always hard to recycle so yes you do have to make sustain yeah he says if you're really serious about zero waste wow i had no idea i still remember so as we were saying so eighty percent was the average there and you said sixty four percent was what nine zero is as an average yes and i remember hearing that the goal line for goal but the number that we always talked about before was that we were around seventy that is right so yeah so it's ok on is this slide like recent do you think it has to do with some of the changes that have happened or i mean it's not a slide show you the region as a whole diversionary is seventy percent ok and that's when you look at the landfill and that is when you incorporate things such as commercial and demolition waste so that really increases the diversion of the region in fact the region is second in b c for diverting waste from landfill interesting facts here so the regional district and i know like you said he's number two in all of b c for waste diverted from landfill and that means that there's an average of three hundred fifty kilos per person going to the landfill every year where the  brought in with them the commercial industry you know ok excellent i was nowhere the other stitches like that well we talked about commercial well you mentioned that one of the things that we've been talking about and working on a bit of the n  doing a bit of research into wealthy family units yeah and knowing some people now that live in some of these around and i know i'm noticing and also going to schools as well they're there pick up his herd of governed by the same thing that they aren't on the city's pick up system of curbside so their standards often are quite different yes and often less yes less is accepted in their recycling then they're now single household so is this because of well i guess why why is that they are on a different system i guess is in question ok so the city of new and imo collects garbage and recycling from houses up to four plex in size anything bigger than a f is treated just like commercial and then what it is it's up to the the building management to arrange with the whole live they they receive collection of waste so i actually just moved out of an apartment last year so i get the frustration here i really would love to see people in multifamily homes have the ability to recycle and compost in that buildings i think that's really important and imo is serious i hope we keep doing that because i still find that knowledge of people know about it and against one of those things when you're in it as you work every day you learn every facet of it yeah but when you're just going about your life in some other field it's just four letters yeah  it's too much information to take long oh yeah our whole life to do you try to get out there and get people the essentials yeah but what they should know about ever in d c is that it's a stewardship group and its responsibility is to collect residential paper and packaging like we've been saying so far the question we're having we're looking at multi families and things like that is why is that not considered residential anymore why is it not falling under a member c t to collect and provide collection for because that's what they're collecting fees for but my understanding is that m p c does work with some multifamily buildings and that there was the opportunity at the time when when it was kind of starting up i guess about two years ago now for those buildings to sign on and actually for a hole is so they you know that the big hole is in canada to sign on with all their buildings all at once but put that wasn't done imo i don't know why maybe because the incentives weren't attractive enough and also because you know if you're going to get a new system in a multifamily building it's hard to implement you know you're going to have to watch for contamination and it's not always something building managers want you know or maybe punishing right so so one of the areas of success that the regional district has had is i touched on before is the ban on organics from restaurants and businesses and we do generally drive a lot of change through landfill bans what we have to do is way up the pros and cons of policy change in in the light of what our residents want and what the industry is able to provide an area if we if we're going to come in with big heavy boots and make a ban there going to be repercussions and you know that could be at the landfill whether whole or stop taking that stuff there whether after the know of a sudden gets hold onto the states and then you're looking at who pays for it you know because the landfill revenues pay for a lot of recycling programs so we have to tread lightly and one of the things i'm really pleased about right now is that the solid waste management plan is being reviewed so this is the plan that every regional district in b c house and it's being looked up right now by a connell and i'm a technical adviser to that so i represent residents have been imo and go forward with what i hear what they would like and that the best thing about this is that it's coming out to public consultation so residents are going to have the opportunity to have fast say we don't have any dates put out yet but when we do they will be published and i would love for people to come along and make some changes you know with us they need to be practical and i think if we  together or not you know there's got to be some options out there excellent time see who can say will just remind our listeners that you're listening to c h l i want to one point seven f m your campus and community station based in downtown than i am old but we're also heard of course that c h l y dot ca where we stream live and podcast and lots of events coming up actually this week first of all mention the global film festival which we did the show on last week it's coming up this weekend february twenty first and twenty second at vi you and buildings two hundred and three fifty six twenty seven documentaries look at everything from the gorgeous and difficult to navigate islands that were removed from the map and bridges advertising campaign to the healing power of music we've got one on canada's use of security certificates to hold people in prison without telling them what they're accused of and another one that's completely different about a family's experience of living through the winter in the yukon without electricity internet running water t v for bone etc and they find that they reconnect with each other and with nature so lots of different things there's a zero waste film that looks like a lot of fun about people in madagascar repairing or repurposing everything with a lot of ingenuity and there's good music apparently in that film there will be food to keep you going as well as information tables a few anyway to help you find actions that you can take in response to what you've seen all of the film information that you need is it and imo film fest dot org there is a page that lists all of the films alphabetically it has descriptions trailers and it tells you what time and in what building they're showing there's a page on passes the full weekend passes six punch passes and double bill passes can be purchased on line they can be purchased at van isle video or the green store and they will be available at both venue's at the door during the festival parking we should note we didn't we weren't very clear about this last week parking at vi u is free after eight pm on saturday and all day and evening on sunday course building two hundred is close to the bus loop and there's bike storage on campus travis you would know where the best place is to put your bike when you go the biggest bike lock ups are there's one down near the bottom of campus by the gymnasium it's a large covered area it also d s that come on when it gets dark automatically and there's a lot of storage there it is a popular one so fills up quickly if you want to ride up the hill on if st it is a bit of a track but you can you can definitely make it and then turn in office street by the biology buildings there is another covered parking there not as big but it's very useful and not as used because it's up the hill and also if you want to go up the main hill on fourth and then twist around by the bus loop and go all the way up to building through fifty five there is another set of just bike racks there that will take you really close to where all the films are going to be high yes that's right next to three fifty six where half of the films will be ok great thanks very much this is also no impact week at vi you brought to us by the solutions group there this project uses entertainment education and group action to engage new people in the quest for ways of living that connects individual happiness with service to community and habitat and you can learn more at no impact project dot org there's no triple w there just no impact project dot org and you can actually participate whether you're a student or you work at v a you or if you're in the wider community you can actually join solutions for this week along curb and cleanse journey they say and just go to that website no impact project dot org and there's slash university and apparently you can sign up there it's still black history month of course and you can find out all of the events that are happening there at nine zero african heritage society dot com and finally the mt arrowsmith biosphere reserve is presenting two talks on thursday this week called moving sustainability education forward in b c the first talk will be at noon so bring your lunch in building three o five above the law library in the i see our lounge that's the research center i think and there will be another talk in fill at seven at the parks phil civic and technology center and the theme is how do people learn about sustainability and the environment what does environmental education look like c and how does it compare to learning models of broad dr david zed vliet director of simon fraser university's institute for environmental learning will give an engaging presentation and discussion around these important questions and of course both of these events are free and you can find out about that one on campus by going to the campus events page and kind of going to the anyway sounds like a very very interesting talk the program that you are listening to on c h o y went to one point seven f m is changes and today travis barrington is talking with charlotte davis from the city about diversion from the landfill the city's new solid waste management plan the zero waste challenge has been mentioned and all things contributing to reducing the things that we send to the landfill so back to you ok thank you suzanne yes the new saw always manage plan something i want to get to you but first just two things that came to mind while you were giving that update we mentioned before some part of the reason why plastic bags don't go into curbside is the contamination they can cause other loads and how using bags to two containers i think sometimes it gets them thrown away because of that so i think i'm curious myself and a lot of people might be as well just about what it takes to make a load contaminate like if that's something you can comment on how much it how much of one person putting that extra little thing that isn't recyclable does it take to make a eight hundred households a day and contamination we actually have a target for ration so and then b c such as target to to have no more than three percent of our load contaminated and that's by weight so when you look in grocery bags although they are light it does add up quickly and there are also other things that come into the contamination as well because i mean this is really the first time a city has ever had to look at can have a nation because when we were collecting you used to take it anyway the city did move one point so what's the status of glass these days so glass is a difficult one because because the nature of the way you have to  has to be separate and the city has never collected glass and you're right the regional district up until may of last year i did used to collect glass it requires a different truck on the road to go out and collect it and where i'm from back in england we used to do that service but then there's no deposit option on bottles so i think you know and i know about one percent of all recycling is actually glass so from my point of view when i'm looking at value and service and why i have to charge residents glass collection it doesn't make financial sense because that wouldn't be much less out because the be a pulse and stuff people take back and get that money back on them and so it just be a vacation all glass jaw and really it doesn't warrant  additional truck and the cost and the c o two that would create this but the n r a does have the glass yes we do have a glass fin but yeah that is a very good point especially with the mention of additional vehicles on the ro something it's going to come into balance on us and the other thing that i was thinking of during the break and additionally contamination was you put you mention a little bit about landfill bans and putting the foot down some of these materials and who are their lead to for people who bring those in or whether that in fact maybe leads to other problems such as people for taking the matter into their own hand and dumping it elsewhere yeah is that something that is more likely to happen you think with a landfill ban or it could happen certainly i mean the city does have an issue with illegal dumping right now i haven't and probably always has i mean i've only been in my chair for twelve months so i haven't seen historically but and i haven't actually  know whether it's any plastic bags being illegally dumped right now but i do think that that certainly could ramp up if we were to mandate more bombs right now i manage a budget of about about twenty thousand dollars of my budget goes towards  and we do about probably about two or three calls a week on that and there are some specific areas in the city that people talk about for illegal dumping and i would say that we do turn detective on those people that do that we will go through the bags and try and things of of sort of public shaming of people who did that when they did go to tech to when they found a receipt and i think they put a message in the paper telling the person come down to city hall to collect your garbage we found it for you or something like that it's a really cool idea  yeah i'm glad i hope to see that in the paper yeah because that's always such a disheartening thing to see and it's one of the pic like i go to schools and i talk to kids or cycling in the environment of things and it's always a picture i show with this one of  want road with just like appliances and bags of garbage and things like that and i just resonates so strongly with them and i say like yeah this is a place i like to go and people see it and this is where i'm from and it's not it's not a pleasant thing to have to to show people this side of where you live you know until i'm glad there are people on it and detectives working to you know i know she's doing when i was there was a group cleaning that area one point i think it was a volunteer group or you were you connected with them at all or did they identify themselves to you i'm not sure i don't want to take credit away from anyone but i do believe not organizing things like that every now and then  league nonprofit societies can sign up to do that and help the city and have a bit of a reward in return absolutely yeah so while it's a pick programs that is about to launch example and they'll use that to put on free ice skating events but it's really you know it's a win when we're picking up litter and also people get my thing for free that's just really getting them yeah it's great and the city provides them with all the things that they need the bags the reflective vast the gloves i think all sorts of things like that right yeah great ok ok so since we have you here and it was something we want to talk about from the start why don't zero eight ok that depends on what you mean by say yes i guess though i know that's the that's a goal but i know it has to be balanced with what's possible so yeah what can be done and what is being done to move toward that even if it's only ok it's interesting i think the region needs to decide what is there a waste needs to zero waste mean what does that mean for residuals treatment so does that mean no landfill or does that mean landfill doesn't mean incineration or not mean there'd be need to be a lot of changes to come on board to go in that way but i i don't think that we should be afraid of shooting for something just because it's so different and i think by setting ourselves a then that might be unachievable it's not necessarily a bad thing to do because you know but but in order for that i mean it just wouldn't come along right now the expense of that compared to landfill so like an incinerator is you know so expensive and and with this demand on the island right now i don't think so when you know we have got capability  with the landfill we have and there's so many other options that we will look at before that would ever be on the table you know i really don't think that's the concern ok right now yeah good i'm glad you mentioned that because that was something i was going to ask but because we all remember last spring and how big of a concern that was here and the turnout in the public response that we had for the possibility of of an incinerator being here to burn well thank you risk everything so to the idea that people would somehow be on board that if we were bringing our own garbage doesn't really seem like it would fly no probably no no i think you're right i mean that was particularly obnoxious probably because it was somebody else's garbage just how but even if it were a room garbage it's still not very attractive option when you when you look at the different ways we can we can handle our garbage that we have already and by driving diversion we shouldn't have that much residual to deal with anyway so that's really what i'd like to focus on ok and i'm glad you also mention the because we're the zero waste international alliance definition because that is something that they really want to a stablish as the standard when you say the term zero waste as the no landfill no incinerated the what they call the no no berry no bill berry no bernie exactly that's it that's what they want to call it becomes the standard so that when anyone uses zero waste in a plan that is saying that's going to happen for this and i remember it kind of started with the meeting the ten a public meeting we had at the conference back in october yeah that feedback shaped the plans current for middle i think it's i think it stands to so that's excellent and so you know when we did the conference and the community event off that we did get a good turnout and people's voices were heard there was there was panels all around the room where we were we were asking for different opinions on different issues than waste and we all of those and actually very with the guiding principles for some of the meetings that we've had on the solid waste management plan so the plan is actually two panels there's a select committee and there's an advisory committee i'm on the advisory committee and i don't get to vote i'm a technical adviser so i guess that before i listen to the residence and then kind of go forward with it with ideas that i think from my position you know would work so this two panels and hopefully well you know have some good meetings they share and hopefully get the plan reviewed and over to the ministry of environment for approval i hope this year is the big process to go through got a lot of work and public consultation is a huge  wasn't something i had thought of before but since you mentioned the approval of mr environment yeah maybe interesting you know just what it is the process of getting one of these plans approved well it's a first for me but i have not worked in b c before but  especially if we're doing something new or different like if there was going to be a ban on plastic bags that could go all the way up to the premier i think because we'd be doing something quite different and you know with the what they tried over on the mainland with the did you hear about by law to a t v you know they were trying to restrict the flow of of garbage in metro vancouver and you know that became a big issue and that was something that was brought through through that so as waste management plan so that they all  ministry i don't think there's a timeframe for that but they will be looked at closely because you know it's a big thing and it does stand to make quite a large change in our community if we start shaking things up there definitely is there room in a plan like that to question i'm probably not best placed once that might be better to to speak with the regional district but we want to really can do is prepare infrastructure probably through through licensing ye through maybe looking at what financial support the regional district in the city is bound to offer to external parties such as you know such as that i mean recycling a change that can be encompassed into the plan ye initiatives that take all the planes in the lake that help people out so yeah it is nice to see that they might be getting thought of in these types of plans you know i think it would be you know really setting the landscape for people to come forward make it making the environment available for people to have these fun and exciting ideas local solutions to local waste trade so yeah i think that about covers us and i think if that's a good note to end on a sort of bridging that last little bit that last i guess thirty percent are between more knishes from the city and more local solutions and entrepreneurial ideas i do something just popped into my mind is the cigarette butt recycling that vancouver is supposedly doing do you have any idea how that's working or whether that could be something from a light moment to look it could be i mean i don't really know too much about that program but in terms of i think it was a real intrapreneur you know kind of move that was brought in then it's something that is a real issue everybody deals with and when you get something you know somebody thinking differently and coming up with the solutions i really would like those ideas to be nurtured locally you so i applaud them for going with that yeah yeah interesting if nothing else it might make people a bit more aware of where they toss those things because they can start fires people throw them into chemicals that can go in the water i don't know exactly though and i don't want to have anyone from tobacco come down on me for saying this on a really but i think i think where exchange thanks to both of you and that's our show changes its turn every tuesday morning at eleven here on the white check us out on facebook and on behalf of our production team thanks so much for joining us