“A casual reading of daily newspapers makes clear that waste management, and in particular landfilling, is high on the political agenda of many municipalities, and is recognized as a leading environmental problem.” – Heeney, 2003

If you haven’t seen it – go and check out the SLRD’s video about what the Lillooet Landfill is doing to help our community improve their recycling and waste habits.  It’s got some beautiful footage of Lillooet, and discusses a very timely topic – our waste and how to make less of it.

Around the world, people are waking up to the fact that we haven’t taken into account the true cost of our waste.  What can we do about it?  Well, as Sue Senger of Rose Hill Farm says in the video, the ultimate goal is zero waste. How we go about getting there, is by getting better at managing what we throw away.  The wise alliteration, “Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle” is being put into effect here at our landfill site.  Rick Hjerpe has created recycling facilities for almost all of the items we routinely discard, and a free store for the ones that could be re-used by someone else.  Tour the landfill site with Rick for an impressive list of recyclable items – including oils, paint and all kinds of electronics.  It’s good to know that so much of what could go in to our landfill can be recycled, keeping it out of our soil and extending the use of our valuable resources.

The video also takes viewers on a tour of Rose Hill Farm with Sue, where she explains why she farms, what she’s farming, and how she is reducing her own waste. Sue also speaks to invasive plants in the area – an all too common problem in British Columbia.  It’s important not to compost invasive species, as it simply compounds the problem!  (For more information about how to spot invasives, and what you can do to prevent and eliminate them, check out the Lillooet Regional Invasive Species Society website here.)

With climate change upon us, and an ever-growing global community, every little bit that each of us can do to protect our land, our water and our environment helps insure a healthier future for those to come.

“Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet.” – Carl Sagan