The Cowichan Valley Regional District is going to update a plan that’s more than a decade old.
The Solid Waste Management Plan is meant to set new waste reduction targets and propose strategies for dealing with municipal solid waste over the next ten years.
The CVRD’s Senior Environmental Technologist Harmony Huffman says public consultation is a key piece of this plan and people can go online to learn more and provide feedback.
“How the region’s garbage should be managed over the next five, ten, and even 20 years is something that all regional districts have to develop,” said Huffman. “The province of BC requires that all regional districts have a solid waste management plan.”
Huffman said,” our plan was last looked at in 2006, that’s more than ten years ago now and it’s high time that we took the opportunity to take a look at how we can better manage things.”
Open houses, online surveys, and PlaceSpeak are all ways the regional district plans to get public input on a new solid waste management plan.
The scope of the plan is ten to 25 years and Huffman says people can learn more and review the draft plan online.
“I encourage people to go online and have a look at the draft plan, there are 13 strategies that have been developed and they’re all a little bit different, but help to focus in on gaps that we’ve identified in the current system,” said Huffman. “We know that 30 per cent of the garbage that we send to the landfill is actually made up of wasted food and organic, compostable material.”
Three open houses are coming to Lake Cowichan, Cobble Hill, and Saltair.
Dates and Times:
Lake Cowichan: Cowichan Lake Recreation Centre: August 29 from 1-4 pm
Cobble Hill: Cobble Hill Farmer’s Institute Hall: September 11 from 5-8 pm
Saltair: Saltair Community Centre: September 12 from noon to 3 pm
