On March 11, 2015 the CRD Board of Directors, our own Dave Howe included, voted near-unanimously to cover the funding deficit that our depot and the other Southern Gulf Islands depots were facing in continuing to collect residential packaging and printed paper recyclables (PPP) beyond the middle of this year. This four-year contract extension between the CRD and Pender Island Recycling Society allows us to collect residential packaging and printed paper recyclables at the Pender Island recycling depot uninterrupted through April 2019.

We’re extremely grateful to the CRD for this new contract. We’ve made a commitment to them to persist in our campaign efforts to see the Packaging and Printed Paper Stewardship Plan mesh with the B.C. Recycling Regulation as intended.

While the cost of collecting these recyclables is supposed to be paid for by the industry and businesses that manufacturer them or import them into British Columbia, the producers, so far the representative of these businesses, Recycle BC (formerly MMBC) recyclebc.ca have offered to pay only a small percentage of our costs to collect it on their behalf, and the regulating body, the B.C. Ministry of Environment, hasn’t yet held them fully accountable for this or other aspects of their government-approved recycling plan.

In addition to the CRD providing this very important four years contract extension to have Pender Island Recycling Society collect packaging and printed paper recyclables on the Penders, the CRD Board of Directors also voted to send a letter to the B.C. Ministry of Environment requesting “full compliance by Multi Material BC with the BC Recycling Regulation to ensure reasonable access for the collection of residential PPP [Packaging and Printed Paper] in British Columbia.”

In other words, and as Pender Island Recycling Society has been doing consistently for years, the CRD is going to ask the B.C. Minister of Environment to have Recycle BC (formerly MMBC) adhere to the provincial regulation. It was back in 2011 that the Ministry of Environment shifted the responsibility for recycling residential packaging and printed paper from local governments to producers, but the new plan didn’t come into effect until May 19, 2014.

Now, with the assurance that our operating costs of collecting residential packaging and printed paper recyclables are covered through mid-2019, Pender Island Recycling Society can continue, along with our partner members of the Southern Gulf Islands Recycling Coalition and the CRD, in a renewed campaign to correct this funding situation for the long term.

Pender Island Recycling Society extends a huge thank you to all those who have been with us and assisting us in our efforts to have the producers fulfill their obligations under provincial legislation: Southern Gulf Islands Recycling Coalition members and representatives; CRD staff; CRD Environmental Services Committee; CRD Board of Directors, in particular CRD directors David Howe, Wayne McIntyre and Mike Hicks; NDP MLA’s Gary Holman and Lana Popham; UVIC Environmental Law Centre and West Coast Environmental Law and, of course, the residents of the Pender Islands for their support during this time of change by signing petitions, offering financial support, and encouraging us to keep fighting for our rights.

Our push to redirect the wayward Packaging and Printed Paper Stewardship Plan back onto its intended path is far from complete.