The CVRD is hoping that the saying “if you build it, they will come” will apply to recycling after completing major upgrades to the Peerless Road Recycling Centre at the south end of Ladysmith.
Driving up to the site, which celebrated its official opening March 12, it looks larger, easier to navigate and cleaner than any other recycling centre I’ve ever been to. The site features 21 drop-off bays and accepts 650 individual items, the majority for free. According to the CVRD, it is the newest and most comprehensive recycling centre in B.C. And hopefully making it easier and more enjoyable for people to recycle will make people recycle even more.
Bob McDonald of the CVRD says this jurisdiction is one of the leaders in waste diversion, and these upgrades at the Peerless Road site should go a long way to maintaining that status.
It’s a one-stop drop-off, and waits and lineups are expected to be lowered because there are two scales instead of one. Once you go through a scale, you can go to the free area or the pay area where you drop off items such as lumber. If you only need to use the free drop-offs, you don’t need to go through another scale, so it’s easy to leave. There’s a free store and a community bottle drive area where local groups can collect and sort bottles for fundraising bottle drives, which seem like great additions. There is more indoor space, and there are public washrooms.
When it comes to reusing and working towards Zero Waste, the CVRD isn’t just talking the talk; it has incorporated a number of green features into the new site.
There seem to be a lot of positives here.
—Lindsay Chung
