2017 September Pender Post

Another Pender Islands Fall Fair is about to be enjoyed by all this Saturday, Aug 26th. The Pender Island Recycling Society (PIRS) encourages all those attending the Fall Fair to put in an extra effort to reach the fair’s goal of Zero Waste. This year, a number of the Fall Fair food vendors have taken the initiative to use compostable service products to serve their food on, or in. These, and food scraps, will be collected and managed at one of the Recycle-Compost-Garbage stations on the fairgrounds staffed by recycling depot workers. Marika Smith, Executive Director of Victoria’s Compost Education Centre, will be on hand at the Fall Fair to help and answer any composting questions that come up. Much of the compostable resource that is collected will be buried in an on-site trench for the natural composting process to take care of! The balance of the compostables will be transported by PIRS to Hartland landfill for processing at the commercial composting facility they contract with. All of this is a great example of how a bit of effort can produce great results when it comes to reducing landfill waste.

Poor packaging choices, by producers and consumers, is a huge contributor to landfill waste these days; just look in your garbage can. With food waste and recyclables out of the garbage can, what seems to be predominantly left is non-recyclable plastic packaging. PIRS thanks all of you for trying to make the best choices when purchasing packaged products, and for helping the Fall Fair achieve a near Zero Waste result.

Be sure to drop by the Pender Island Recycling Society exhibition tents to see the Recycling category entries (Reuse/Repurposing competition). As always, there will an inspiring display of imagination and creativity, and inventive functionality. You’ll also find an interesting and educational display about Recycling. This information, plus photographs of 2017 Recycling category submissions and winners, will be posted on the PIRS website: penderislandrecycling.com. Under the PIRS tents, you will also find children and adults busy making reusable shopping bags from a new-to-you t-shirts: Really neat reuse! It’s going to be fun to see these bags in use around the islands.

So as we head into September, just a reminder that there are a few reservation spots available for our backhaul service (ie. soil, gravel, sand, manure, mulch, etc brought by the PIRS truck from a Saanich Peninsula source to your property on the Penders). Thank you for using this service; it helps fund your recycling operation!

Another reminder: Summer depot hours are still in effect (until the end of September): Tuesdays 8-3pm, Fridays 10-3pm, Saturday 10-3pm, and Sundays 1-4pm.

For details about the products and items we accept at the Pender Island Recycling Depot, plus lots more information about your long-serving Pender Islands community-owned organization, visit the Pender Island Recycling Society website at penderislandrecycling.com.

See you at the Fall Fair,

Jenn Kaila