Columbia Bottle Recycling: Creston, B.C.
This Saturday afternoon I spent several hours with Dave Fowler, the friendly and enthusiastic owner of Columbia Bottle Recycling. His franchise receives $10,400 per month to process recyclables in the Creston BC area. The tax base in Creston is 5,450 households, there are around 12,000 people in the surrounding area-similar situation to Bonners Ferry which has 2,400 households and 10,000 people in the surrounding area. The recycling service costs each household $1.92 per month or $25.00 per year. For garbage that is not recyclable, residents of Creston have garbage collection once a week.
Recylables accepted at the recycling center include: Newspaper-including fliers; Mixed paper-envelopes,paper bags, scrap paper,cereal boxes, books, magazines, phonebooks; Glass-clean glass jars and bottles; Cardboard; Plastic-#1PET,#2clear, #2colored,#4Plastic film this includes sheets of plastic and plastic grocery bags; Tin cans=clean tin and aluminum cans
Materials not accepted include: styrafoam, #5 plastic=cottagecheese and yogurt containers, plastic without recycle numbers, plexiglass, fiberglass, mirrors, ceramics, plate glass, light bulbs, soiled paper, glass, or cardboard; soiled plastic sheeting, plastic toys, film, metal scrap, appliances, pots and pans, aluminum foil. Dave has 14 Satellite Depot locations in the surrounding area-he sometimes gets things that can't be recycled-like styrafoam packaging on satellite dishes. He has to pay to take non recyclables to the landfill.
British Columbia's new Stewardship Program includes all beverage containers in the bottle bill. I saw folks bringing 50 gallon clear plastic bags full of 4" juice boxes to the recycle center. Dave pays 0.05 for each non-alchoholic container under one liter and $0.10 for any non-alchoholic container over one liter. For alchoholic containers Dave pays $0.10 for one liter and under, $0.20 for those over one liter. He paid out $700,000.00 for returned beverage containers last year. The bottle bill has helped make his business a success.
Last week there were many bales of plastic at the center, they all were shipped out this week. The recycle center is a busy place full of grateful customers. Dave's business is obviously an on-going profit making concern.
Dave has set up 14 Satellite Depot Locations at local businesses.
British Columbia's beverage container recovery system
Enacted in 1970, British Colunmbia's beverage recovery system is the oldest legislated deposit return system in North America. In 1998 the beverage container Stewardship Program Regulation went into effect to handle changes in beverage container packaging-particularly the growth of 'New Age' beverages. The regulation expands the current deposit -return system to include all ready to drink beverages except milk and milk substitutes and meal replacements. Under the regulation all beverage containers must be refillable or recyclable and no containers recovered by the system can be landfilled or incinerated. The new regulations will move the non alchoholic system away from return to retail to a depot system run by Encorp Pacific. The B.C. liquor Commission has a return to retailer for hard liquor containers while beer can be returned to retailer or returned to depot for a discounted deposit.
Owner Dennis Kerby
Items accepted include: Aluminum cans .28 per pound, Aluminum roofing .19
per pound, aluminum roofing with iron, .02 per pound. Plastics-#1#2#3-remove
the lids; Brass Red-.31/pd, Brass yellow .26/pd, Brass radiators- .20/pd
if clean, Brass turrnings-.18/pd; Lead .02/pound; Copper #1 .33, #2 .31;
Glass all colors-remove the lead wrapping at the top of wine bottles; Newspapers
and white paper that is not glossy; Magazines and mixed glossy paper; Cardboard-this
includes dogfood bags; Used oil disposal fee is .25/gallon
Feedback and input
appreciated, email me at: toniholl@hollygardens.com