What's in a name? Plenty, if you're trying to encourage 129 townhome and condominium dwellers to buy into your plans to significantly boost solid-materials recycling, Bill Cavanagh says.
That's why, almost a year ago, Cavanagh and the other three members of the 1212 Main St. (Aqua) Refuse Management Team changed the name of the complex's "Garbage Room" to "Refuse Management Centre."
But they did more than just change the name of the windowless, concrete-walled room. A lot more.
When Cavanagh moved to Squamish from Etobicoke, Ont., in November 2012, "I realized that our building was not very serious about recycling of any materials," he told The Chief in an email.
With the strata council's blessing, a four-member team - also including Ron Manship, Peter Lang and Rob Hunter - was formed in February 2012.
The following month, with the help of Ray Christensen from Carney's Waste Systems, they increased the number of blue recycling bins in the former garbage room, allowing residents to separate out their paper, plastic, cardboard, glass and refundable containers, as well as separate boxes for light bulbs and batteries. In September, they introduced bins for compost, which Carney's employees come and haul away once a week, and set up a separate area for Styrofoam.
All refundable containers are taken to the Bottle Depot, with the proceeds - about $40 a week - going back into the strata council's general fund. In mid-December, the group also began collecting plastic film - grocery bags, food packaging and the like - to be taken to Carney's separately. Used batteries are also taken to Carney's to be recycled, and light bulbs go into bins at Rona and London Drugs, respectively.
Every resident of the complex has been given signage to put up on his or her unit's walls to help people separate materials before they're taken to the Refuse Management Room, which was uncluttered and almost squeaky-clean enough to eat off the floor when The Chief visited last week. On a regular basis, though, one or more member of the team visits the room and takes note of any material that was placed in the wrong bin so that educational materials for residents can be updated.
The result? In less than a year, the complex has reduced the amount of waste going into the Squamish landfill by an estimated 40 per cent. Cavanagh said the waste management team has set a goal of increasing that to 70 per cent by the end of 2014.
At the moment, Carney's still has to come three times a week to empty the complex's one bin set aside for garbage, but that'll soon be down to two a week, Cavanagh said. His goal is to reduce it to one by year's end.
"I'm a recycle nut. Even my grandchildren wonder why I do what I do," said the semi-retired career military man.
Cavanagh said the people at Carney's -especially Christensen and Courtney Cassell - "have gone overboard in helping us get started with this. I think they see that what we're doing here would make their lives easier if everybody was doing it.
"I want people to understand that what we've done here works, and that everyone can do this."
Christensen, Carney's sales manager, on Thursday (Feb. 6) said Cavanagh and the team at 1212 Main is an example to be followed, largely because of their efforts aimed at educating residents about the system they have in place and how to take advantage of it.
"There are some other examples of successful programs at other stratas, but obviously they [1212 Main] took it to the next level," Christensen said. "They've gone out to the owners and tenants and gave people the education to help them out, and because of that, people have bought in and stepped up their recycling efforts."
Another key to the strata's success is that they had a good-sized garbage er, Waste Management Centre.
"There are some challenges, of course, and one of those is space. Some complexes might have that space to do that," Christensen said.
Still, it behooves everyone to do what she or he can to reduce waste going into the landfill, Cavanagh said. Doing so helps reduce one's environmental footprint, saves money and extends the landfill's useable life.
"This is not just for me," he said. "This is for my grandkids' kids, because we can't just keep putting stuff in the dump forever."
