Solid Waste Management Committee

Update Oct 31st 2018: The Waste Management Committee is back. We are now called the Lasqueti Island Solid Waste Plan Monitoring and Advisory Committee, or LIPMAC. Members are Dave O. (chair), Brigitte D. (recorder), and David H.. Our Terms of Reference can be found here. As before, agendas, minutes, and other important documents will be posted in the sidebar.

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Update Nov 22nd 2017: LISWMAC's final report is now available. We will provide a more detailed update to the community once we have a better idea how the RD will respond and what the final version of the Lasqueti Island Solid Waste Management Plan will look like.

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Update Sept 22nd, 2017: Thanks to everybody who provided input through the 2017 community survey or at the August community meeting. A summary of survey results can be found here, or you can download the Excel spreadsheet with individual responses.

Unfortunately, we still don't know at this point whether waste management will remain a stand-alone service for Lasqueti, or whether it will be converted to a regional service funded jointly by all RD tax payers. LISWMAC is deferring final recommendations on future facilities until there is more clarity around how waste management services will be funded in the future.

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Our committee has been hard at work helping Maura Walker, the consultant hired by the PRRD, to draft an update to our waste management plan, largely based on what we learned in last year’s survey and community meeting about community preference. LISWMAC has also developed and costed out several future waste management options, in collaboration with Maura and RD staff. Curious about what went into the cost estimates? Details can be found here (Excel version) or here (pdf version).

The Lasqueti Island Solid Waste Management Advisory Committee (LISWMAC) was formed in February 2016 "to research and advise the Powell River Regional District on how to best implement the Solid Waste Management Plan within Electoral Area E''.

Current members are

• Gordon S. (chair)
• Brigitte D. (committee recorder)
• Julie N. (free store employee)
• Robyn D. (Lasqueti Island solid waste contractor)
• Dave O.
• Gail F.
• Natty V.
• Merrick A. (RD Director, non-voting member)

For questions or suggestions email swmc At lasqueti.ca

Update Jan 5, 2017: Jan 5 meeting cancelled. Stand by for new date. 

Update Nov 13, 2016: We expect that the committee's term will be extended into 2017 to advise on the ongoing update of the Lasqueti Island Solid Waste Management Plan. There will be more opportunities for public input as the update progresses.

Update Aug 4, 2016: Thanks everybody who filled out the survey! Click here to see the results.

Update June 27, 2016: We need your input!!! Come to the Community Meeting on July 12 (7pm @ hall) and fill out the Survey

Update March 24, 2016: The PRRD Board has followed up on LISWMAC's recommendation to withdraw Lasqueti from the MMBC recycling program. This means we will have more autonomy in terms of what gets collected at our recycling centre and what happens to the collected materials afterwards. We are currently working on setting up new destinations for our recyclables. The recycling centre will remain open during this transition period, but if at all possible, please take your recycling over to the other side or stash it until we have our new program in place. Stay tuned for more information!   

The best way to deal with recyclables is to avoid having to ship them off island altogether. Below is a collection of useful links from around the web for how to turn collected materials into local resources. If you have suggestions for how to avoid generating waste, or for repairing, re-using or re-cycling on-island, we'd love to hear from you!

Turning waste into an on-island resource

• Using thermal depolymerization to turn waste into oil
  • Non-technical overview of how to use pyrolysis to make oil from plastic
  • Oil from plastic - on a countertop scale
  • Student pyrolysis project
  • Small-scale plants by Blest
  • Small-scale plants by Pirotex
• Plastic recycling
  • Open-source plans for plastic recycling machines
• Paper recycling
  • Plans for a small-scale DIY paper recycling plant
  • Small commercial paper recycling machines
  • Epson compact dry paper recycling machine
  • Using paper as a building material: recipes for papercrete, fidobe, and padobe
  • Homemade cellulose insulation
  • Open-source cellulose insulation manufacturing project

On MMBC and the the experience of small communities with MMBC

• MMBC website
• "Coast 'going backwards' with MMBC"  (CoastReporter, May 2014)
• "CRD to make up $450,000 annual rural recycling shortfall"  (Times Colonist, March 2015)