Thompson-Nicola Regional District has made good progress in achieving higher rates of recycling and reducing the amount of solid waste going into landfills, according to Mayor John Harwood.
However, it is going to have to do even more if it is going to meet the provincial targets over the next five years, he said.
Reporting to town council during its March 15 meeting, Harwood said one difficulty faced by the regional district is that it is not a client of MMBC (Multi-Material BC), a non-profit organization financed by industry to manage residential packaging recycling in the province.
The larger companies that produce the packaging materials help pay for the recycling system, Harwood said.
If the TNRD was a client, it would reduce its costs by half.
“This means we have an uneven playing field in the province,” the mayor said.
Harwood made his report as the District of Clearwater representative on the TNRD board of directors.
MMBC was quite controversial when it first began several years ago, with some municipalities and regional districts choosing not to opt in because of what they saw as vague and open-ended contracts.
According to a report from TNRD staff to the regional district’s solid waste management committee, waste generation at TNRD facilities was 517 km/person/year in 2015, compared to a provincial average of 536 kg/person/year.