Roger Smeeth, recycler extraordinaire and South Jubilee resident, is the driving force behind our neighbourhood's plastic recycling program. The program he began has become the model for neighbourhood plastic recycling in other communities in Victoria.
It all began back in 1998, when Roger heard of Chris Mowat and his dogged efforts to gather plastic and take it to a Vancouver plant for reprocessing into "super wood". Roger convinced Chris to try a pilot project in South Jubilee where residents would bring their plastic to his truck at the Victoria College of Art parking lot one Saturday per month. The first day there were 54 residents with their plastic. The word got out and soon individuals from other neighbourhoods were turning up at our monthly collections. Early in 1999 and based on the South Jubilee model, Fairfield organized its own process at five locations in their neighbourhood. They were soon followed by James Bay, Saanich and later, Oaklands.
Chris Mowat has since moved on to other things and our recycling. We have now started a new endeavour with ReFuse Resource Recovery. This program takes almost all types of plastics, styrofoam, electronics, and much more.
The CRD program (blue box) currently takes only hard plastics
As of May 2011, this is the list of what's acceptable for our South Jubilee plastic recycling program:
- Hard plastic
- Soft plastic
- Styrofoam containers, meat trays, etc.
- Styrofoam packing
- Styrofoam peanuts
- Gable top cartons
- Tetra paks
- Foil-lined bags (e.g. chip bags, coffee bags)
- Mixed paper (e.g. take-out coffee cups)
- Batteries
- Electronics/small appliances
Cost is $6 for each large garbage bag. Cost is adjusted down for smaller quantities so $3 for a half bag, etc.
Where and When: The parking lot of the Victoria College of Art at the corner of Bank and Leighton on the second Saturday of every month from 9:00 am to noon.