The Bowen Island Chamber of Commerce puts out about 40,000 copies of the Bowen Guide every year. This year they’re looking at redesigning it and we submitted a proposal. One thing that came up during our meeting with them was the editorial content. The introduction is the hook. You have about 300 words to convince a traveler standing at a tourist rack in their hotel that Bowen is the place to visit while they’re in Vancouver. So ever since then I’ve been writing intros in my head.
It’s the least expensive ocean cruise you’ll ever find. Just hop on the Express bus to Horseshoe Bay, board a BC Ferry and for twenty minutes you’ll get to smell the salt chuck and bask in the sun on the upper deck. The views will blow you away and long before you get bored you’ll find yourself on an island. As you wander through Snug Cove, you may notice people smiling and nodding at you. Don’t let it concern you; nobody is going to try to sell you a time-share. On Bowen it’s just normal. The locals half-know so many people that they’ve gotten into the habit of saying “hi” to everybody. There’s not really anything to do but it is the best place you’ll ever find to do nothing. A walk through the park, feeding some ducks, a beer on the deck of the marina pub, a look through the craft shops and that’s pretty much enough for a day. Of course if you’re a go-getter you can always go out in a kayak or rent a bike or take a bus tour across the island. But you can do these things anywhere. How many places can you really, really enjoy just doing nothing?
There, 218 words and who could resist.
Now that I’ve softened you up, let’s talk about recycling. The Bowen Island Recycling Depot, called BIRD, is operated by volunteers, but these aren’t your normal volunteers. They’re the types that go to an unheated shack on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of winter and bale cardboard. These are people with a strong sense of community service who serve with very little fear of community recognition. So I trust that my suggestions will be accepted for what they are and not taken as any form of criticism. In the twenty years since BIRD was formed times have changed. Recycling has become mainstream waste management practice. I mention this because BIRD is considering closing during the week and only opening on weekends. This is not a good plan. Now is the time to be enhancing our recycling capabilities, not curtailing them. BIRD points to volunteer burnout. Fair enough. What can be done to reduce the amount of work? The vast majority of time is spent baling cardboard. A $25,000 cardboard compressor will reduce the workload dramatically and BIRD has plans (and money) to buy one.
They also point to the amount of non-recyclable garbage that gets dumped in their laps when there’s nobody manning the depot. By opening only on weekends volunteer staff can be available to monitor what comes in. This raises a couple of issues. First, there is no place on Bowen to drop-off your garbage if roadside pick-up once a week doesn’t work for you. But now, with the acquisition of the land across the street from BIRD this is no longer a problem. If people had a place to dump garbage legitimately maybe they wouldn’t be leaving silly things at BIRD and the need to have staff on hand would diminish.
Another matter that should be discussed is returnable containers. When the law changed to mandate deposits and refunds for all beverage containers BIRD decided to allow charitable organizations on the island to sort the containers and keep the refund money. Since then the program has worked as a fundraiser for many organizations and is not something to be discarded lightly. However, maybe the time has come to rethink the matter. Currently the containers bring in about $24,000 per year. This is enough money to subsidize the volunteers to the point where the depot could be kept open seven days a week with somebody on hand during peak periods. The arrival of the big box crusher will free up the volunteers and the container refunds can be used to fund some minimally paid workers to sort and handle the containers as they arrive. My bet is that once people realize that donating their containers to BIRD will help to fund recycling initiatives donations will increase. For those who simply throw everything in the garbage it may even spur them on to start dropping their recyclables at the depot.
Whether BIRD relocates next door in the Highways Yard or across the road, things are happening and I hope that after a bit of reflection they will decide to expand their undertakings rather than shrink them.
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