Bellringer "Out to Lunch"

Yup...B.C.'s Auditor General, Carole Bellringer, is out to lunch if she thinks she has a good grasp on the recycling program(s) in the province.
She's obviously listening to the wrong people.

A November 10th Kiss-FM news story reported that no recycling audit was necessary.

""Such as ensuring the quality of reporting and recycling outcomes, expanding access to recycling services to more locations throughout the province including  rural communities, and encouraging accountability through transparent financial reporting."

The program's working well, Ms. Bellringer?
Really?

"Those who make, distribute or sell certain types of products are responsible for recycling them.

 The intent is to take the responsibility off of taxpayers

 and local governments and put it with the producers,"

 Carole Bellringer, B.C. Auditor General

Abject hogwash.

Have a look at "those who make, distribute or sell..."

Notice something?  (You should...)
Well, perhaps not...because you have to dig for it.

"Those who make..." includes Weston Bakeries, the largest bread manufacturer in Canada.

an apt description...

"So does Bellringer know that bread bags aren't allowed in the recycling containers?", Kia would've asked.

Apparently she hasn't a clue that bread bags aren't allowed.

The problem with recycling program(s) in B.C. should ring a bell.
But apparently not for everyone.

Just more ka-ka from the B.C. government, whose regional districts got lots of moolah (= bribe?) to enable the program...

Need Another Room to Pile It

...just so I don't get another "note" from the recycler/driver.

Since the recycling system collects only every two weeks--and I only put recycling out once a month--there are 4 weeks of recycling in the blue bins...all of which is acceptable (no rejected containers or packaging, or illegal items in the tiny world of the recycling industry).

But I toss stuff into the blue bins (located in the garage) as--and when--containers are emptied in the house through cooking etc. 
So it's only natural that there may be some items somewhat mixed up in the blue box.
Otherwise I'd have to have numerous loose piles in my laundry room--which I vehemently refuse to do--and then on the morning of recycling, I would have to selectively load into the required categories the items in the order they want.


To be fair, the driver DID take all my recycling, despite the green--slap on my wrist--note stating they had been unable to collect it today, so thank you.

And, yes, he left a RDNO brochure about the partnership with Emterra Environmental and MMBC.

Notice anything?  hmmmm.

Notice anything about the recycling guide brochure the driver left? 
Yup...it's got plastic overwrap.

Plastic overwrap isn't allowed by our recycling program (if you can call it a program), and the plastic overwrap has to be taken to a separate depot.

So...anybody else have piles and piles of loose stuff in their laundry room--waiting for recycling day--so that you can nicely arrange it for the driver (to prevent getting a green note)?

"Maybe you should offer to drive the bloody truck, too," Kia would've said.

Recycling director, Mr. Allen Langdon should be driving the truck.

Industry Smoke-n-Mirrors Goes to DoC Council

Mark your calendars, Coldstream residents.

Go see Mr. Allen Langdon make a MMBC recycling presentation to the Council of Coldstream on Monday, July 5th.

Or don't go.

You'll recall he's the managing director of MMBC, multi-material B.C., our area's recycling program.
Unaffectionately renamed Mini-Material B.C. by residents, by the way, because they take fewer "acceptable" items than the old blue bag system did.  And residents all loved that blue bag system!

His 9-page powerpoint presentation is here, so you can save yourself the aggravation of wanting to shout aloud against his patronizing and condescending bafflegab (remember when he suggested residents combine trips to the recycling depot with grocery errands???)


Hopefully Coldstream council will see through the smoke and mirrors.
Many of us want one question asked:

Why...when the largest Bakery in Canada is Weston...are their (and others') plastic bread bags NOT allowed in the curbside collection boxes?

  (after all, Weston is one of the big boys who bring us this decidedly-shoddy program!)

And Mr. Langdon still doesn't get it, evidenced by the last statement on his presentation:

"In addition, MMBC is willing to work

in partnership with the District of Coldstream

to help address any specific issues

with their residents through targeted education activities."

 

 

Yeah, right!  "targeted education activities".

Translation:  we residents will be further educated!

 

 

 

"How about they get Mr. Langdon up to the garbage dump--media reporter and camera as witnesses--and have Langdon do 'an audit' of garbage bags.  Place everything that could've gone into a blue bin (or taken by a resident to a recycling depot) into one ever-growing pile," offers Kia.

 

 

That'd suit residents nicely, as long as the Morning Star takes a giant panoramic shot of the pile Langdon discovers.

 

Everyone we've talked to is putting most "recyclables" into garbage bags again.

Poor Mother Earth.

And it's MMBC's fault.

And Langdon's.

 

For more on which companies are the corporate biggies who are force-feeding us with this bullshit, click here.

 

 

 

 

Residential Complaints Head to Victoria...Eventually

Victoria occasionally needs ganging up on by municipalities.

Especially when the MLA--in this case Eric Foster--dragged his heels (or knuckles) and refused to handle residents' complaints.

Think of Stickle Road (which isn't in Coldstream's area...but a contentious issue nevertheless).  Residents and business owners of that area attended several public hearings where the Ministry of Transportation heard concerns and suggestions designed to improve safety where the road meets Hwy. 97N.

MLA Foster didn't even attend.
Finally explaining why, he inanely stated it was to prevent it "being all about me..." 

Huh?
All about him?

But he jumped into the Amphitheatre fray early on, and soon announced that he would tell Victoria not to allow its construction, stating that a more suitable location needed to be found...(away from all those angry voters.)
 
That's basically what the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities meetings are...communities all over B.C. attend with recommendations in an attempt to gain allies among mayors and planners and bureaucrats so that projects have an improved likelihood of success with government ministers.

Whether communities want money, more money, more money or more laws and money, they go to the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities meetings with their recommendations.  "Minister grovelling" has become downright critical to a community's goals.

Let's see what's firing Coldstream's jets this year:
(Click table to enlarge)

• Water infrastructure funding...yup, residents on the GVW water system are all, well, tapped out. Especially since they're meeting soon to discuss new water rates and furthering the Master Water Plan despite the $70 million borrowing referendum having been rejected in November of 2014.

• MMBC recycling program...FINALLY a hint that officials have been listening to residents' complaints.  Seems they're finally realizing more and more people are simply putting "un-pickup-ables" into the garbage, having given up sorting and separating previously accepted items. 

• Complaints or issues arising from ALR properties ... whether it's the bird-guns or helicopters that protect cherries from birds and rain damage, residents are wondering whether mile-high buffers are necessary. 

Back to water.
Bob Spiers' Vernonblog indicates three recommendations that are on the hot plate in the next month at RDNO/GVW:

1. Greater Vernon Water (GVW) Strategic Plan for Rates and Fees Structure Workshop – Questions & Answers - Report dated June 20, 2016 RECOMMENDATION 2 Page 1 That the requested information from the May 26, 2016 Special Greater Vernon Advisory Committee meeting regarding the Greater Vernon Water (GVW) Strategic Plan for Rates and Fees Structure Workshop be received for information and discussion at the July 21, 2016 Special Greater Vernon Advisory Committee meeting. 2. Financial Options and Considerations – Greater Vernon Water Master Water Plan - Presentation from the April 14, 2016 GVW 2012 Master Water Plan Stakeholder Advisory Committee Meeting FOR DISCUSSION Page 14 3. 2012 Master Water Plan Review – Stakeholder Advisory Committee Statements and Recommendations - Report dated May 2016
RECOMMENDATION 3 Page 22 That it be recommended to the Board of Directors the request from the Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan to hire an independent engineering consultant to undertake a peer Greater Vernon Advisory Committee Agenda – Regular - Special - 2 - June 29, 2016 review of the 2012 Master Water Plan not go forward. 

By the way, don't look for the agenda yet that contains the above.
It'll be available to we peons a few days before the meeting(s).

 

 

"What's that saying...give (some) politicians two terms...one in office and one in jail?" asks Kia.

Langdon's Insult

Time and again, the North Okanagan's relatively new recycling program has been criticized by residents.
People are fed up and resorting to placing all the "unsupported materials" which, years ago, were accepted in the blue bag program, into the garbage.

As a result, Mother Earth suffers degradation.

The Regional District of North Okanagan appears immune to the criticism and doggedly stands behind their masters in Victoria who imposed the system here, all with the tasty carrot of a million bucks for each regional district to get the system implemented.

Following Bonnie Shideler's excellent letter to the editor some time ago, another criticism today hit the newspaper, penned by Mark Levey.  From conversations I've overheard, the comments appear to mirrow what many people have decided.

Excerpts of his superlative letter to the editor follow:

"A quick visit to MMBC's own website gleans this little gem of information:

B.C.'s Environmental Management Act defines packaging as 'a material, substance or object that is used to protect, contain or transport a commodity or product, or attached to a commodity or product or its container for the purpose of marketing or communicating information about the commodity or product."

"The truth, as known by avid recyclers, is vastly different.  The plastic bag used to 'contain' my potatoes is not a blue bin item, the moulded styrofoam used to "protect" my stereophonic equipment is a no-no.  Bubble wrap?  -- forget it.  The carton that is used to 'transport' my juice?  Not in MMBC's program, thank you very much.

"Who cherry-picked the manufacturers that are part of the program?  Who decided that they needed to be cherry-picked?  Who (because it certainly isn't us, the citizens of B.C.) benefits from this minimalist and inadequate approach to recycling?

Before the intervention of MMBC, the list of recyclables was growing and, unhampered by restrictive regulation, local depots were finding more and more ways of accepting and recycling items that were not even on that growing list.

I, for one, have quit trying to do the right thing.  After either watching the Emterra driver sift through my recycling bin and leave certain items on my lawn, the street or boulevard, or coming home to find the scattered mess, I decided to be a non-recycler.  That is after being an avid recycler, both at home and on the job site for more than 30 years.

I've been a non-recycler for awhile now and I am astounded at the time it frees up by just stuffing everything in the garbage, the space it frees up without those damn bins (and all the containers for the stuff the bins don't take) all over the place, the guilt it frees up over wondering if you're doing the right thing.

Now don't get me wrong.  I'm still a recycler, just not here in B.C.  When I vacation in Mexico, in a town about the size of Enderby, I can recycle plastic bags, glass and all sorts of stuff that you can't here.

When I visit my in-laws in Ontario, I can recycle there, because the program makes sense.

I just hope that, in my lifetime, B.C. comes up with a sensible, inclusive plan for recycling that will make people want to contribute their small efforts towards a common good.  MMBC ain't it." 
                     Mark Levey


So...now get a load of what Mr. Allen Langdon, Managing Director of Multi-Material B.C. wrote in a letter "Recycling rules explained" just two days earlier.

This blog however will begin with Langdon's concluding sentence, because it is so insulting to residents...and their intelligence:

"...we strongly encourage residents who wish to recycle

 these items to combine depot trips

 with other weekly errands

 such as grocery shopping."

         Allen Langdon, MMBC

Excuse me?

Combine depot trips with other errands?

Duh!

Who the hell put this man in charge?

Who does he think he is to suggest something -- to adults -- that even a six-year old would instinctively know?

Langon's insult.
It's patronizing and condescending.

So typical of a corporation that probably wouldn't have existed had it not been for government receiving the owner's bribe...yup, that's what the million bucks was and is.  It was to "encourage" regional districts to implement the program.  No competition, no bidding by other contractors, all under the guise of 'brought to you by industry'. 

What bloody nonsense!

Especially since the largest bakery in Canada--Weston's--is one of the 'brought to you by industry' companies.
But guess what?
You can't put Weston Bakeries' plastic bread wraps into the recycling system either!

Langdon's letter isn't even worth including, except for other yadda yadda phrases such as:
"...and at depots achieves a positive outcome."
"...accountability and transparency is new to B.C."
"...difficult to properly collect and recycle at the curb."
"...takes up a large amount of space on collection trucks, making it inefficient to include."
"...very difficult to process."
"...require special handling and manual sorting."
"...can become tangled."
"...can wrap around sorting machinery, causing delays."
"...only certain...in a way that meets MMBC's strict end-market environmental standards."
"...appreciate the concerns around CO2 emissions created from driving to depots, and the difficulties that seniors or others may face."


So...anybody want to STOP purchasing from these industry manufacturers?  For the list of corporations that "bring you" MMBC, see blog story here dated April 25, 2014 entitled "Exactly, Jennifer!"

The people who pull Langdon's strings (besides the Liberals in Victoria) are:

John Coyne, Chair of Unilever Canada (multinational/Anglo-Dutch)

Denis Brisebois, Treasurer, Metro (multinational/Canadian)

Christine Bome, Walmart (multinational/American)

Scott Bonikowsky, Tim Hortons Inc. (multinational/Canadian)

Robert Chant, Loblaw Companies Limited (Canadian)

Dave Moran, Coca Cola Refreshments Canada (multinational/American)

Gord Meyer, Procter & Gamble (multinational/American)

 

 

"Time to stop buying Weston bread," offers Kia.

 

And Walmart, Metro, Unilever, Tim Hortons, Loblaws, Coca Cole and Procter & Gamble products.

 

 

 

 

Yup...and Walmart, Metro, Unilever, Tim Hortons, Loblaws, Coca Cole and Procter & Gamble products.

 

A big thanks to Bonnie Shideler, Mark Levey and many others who've written in opposition to RDNO's recycling "program"...more accurately described as a recycling farce.

 

Recycling Brainwashing Continues

It just won't go away.

And in today's Letters section, the managing director of Multi-Material BC continues that lie, stating "that's good news for the environment".

Yes, of course, recycling--generally--is a plus for the environment.

But for Allen Langdon of Multi Material BC (unaffectionately called Mini Material BC) to state that "more items than ever before are accepted for recycling" is abject garbage.

"...recycling boxes in Kelowna have wheels and lids"

How can it be good for the environment when residents have to get into their cars to deliver unacceptable-at-the-curb items to recycling depots?

How can it be good for the environment when residents have to haul heavy, unlidded containers lacking wheels, to the curb, already sorted into two--yes, only TWO--categories:  paper/newsprint and containers?

The previous blue-bag program was wonderful, accepting overwrap and plastic shopping bags, bread bags, and multitudes of other common household packaging.  Blue bags were easy to twist-tie against the weather, could be hauled to the curb the night before and were protected against rainfall.

Do the North Okanagan's residents know that recycling boxes in Kelowna have wheels and lids?

Seniors have indicated that the new boxes -- heavy even when empty -- are almost impossible to haul down apartment stairs without the risk of injury.  Many seniors have written letters to the editor stating that they have quit recycling altogether.  That prompted the Regional District of North Okanagan -- one of apparently 18 regional districts in the province that received a $1,000,000 "incentive" for the program -- to state they might set up "garbage audits" at the landfill.

Typical reply from bureaucrats.
Instead of fixing what the real problem is:  Langdon's MMBC rules!

So what is the two-category sorting actually good for?
Certainly not the environment, Mr. Langdon!
It's "good" for MMBC!
Because MMBC can save money by purchasing recycling trucks that only had two compartments:  one for paper/newsprint and the other for containers!

Meanwhile residents had to devote increasing storage space in their homes, if only to have the previously-acceptable recyclables accumulate separately until quantities allowed a trip to the recycling depot, which had never before been necessary.

Oh, and Mr. Langdon also forgot to state that the MMBC program is good for the multinational Asian purchaser of the recycled materials, who obviously is the donor of the $18 million "incentive" for the regional districts.

MMBC recycling containers state: "brought to you by industry".
What a bunch of malarky.
One of them is the largest bakery in Canada...who won't even accept their own bread bags back in the regular recycling program!   Nope. 
We have to take them to a depot.
By car.

And what "industry" is charging retailers of their products is downright highway robbery!

"Langdon's rhetoric is bad for the environment," states Kia.

Good summation.

And, as in so many things, the regional district is complicit in the brainwashing.

Langdon Fails "Listening"

Multi-Material B.C. managing director Allen Langdon was apparently in the North Okanagan on Monday July 14, 2014, "meeting with local politicians", as reported in the Morning Star.

Too bad residents didn't know of his visit until after he was gone.

Picture what would've occurred had we known.
Picture a luxury rental car entirely covered and surrounded (maybe even taped to the car *grin*) by blue bags--containing "no longer acceptable in bins" overwrap, vegetable and plastic bags.

Multiply this photo by, oh, about 300 bags from disgruntled North Okanagan residents.  And picture Langdon's car under the pile.

Alas, a missed opportunity for worthwhile civil disobedience.

We hope that our politicians gave Langdon an earful.
Unfortunately the newspaper didn't seek to dig into whether Langdon heard anything disparaging about their ridiculous "new" program.

There's been a lot said about MMBC, even by corporations, and here and here and here and here and here.

Vernon Mayor Sawatzky asked Langdon why the new recycling bins weren't wheeled and have lids because other communities have that.

Langdon's reply?
Apparently those communities had wheeled and covered bins before MMBC began and those containers have remained in use.


It wasn't lost on politicians that Langdon hadn't been asked when those communities got their bins.

Oh well, recycling depots are now open in Lumby, downtown Vernon, Spallumcheen.

And to think we were wondering what to do with the spare room!


"The Mafia have never been good listeners," offers Kia.

Landfill "Fallout" from "Mini Material" B.C.

Paul Twa had his opinion printed in the Morning Star's June 8th, 2014 issue:

         "Re:  letter to editor "Please trash new recycling plan" by Jean Collier:  Our household and most neighbours agree with Jean's comments regarding the difficulties in recycling with the new MMBC system.  Due to age and mobility issues our neighbourhood will be going from avid recyclers to little to no recycling, and I suspect the only items that will be left out for pick up will be the blue boxes themselves.  

Due to inability to store and move the new bins, in our household we will therefore be going from one or two large blue bags per pick-up to none, with all of the recyclable material now going to the landfill.  Great job reducing waste B.C. government." 
                                                Paul Twa

None of the plastic pictured is allowed to be placed in the blue boxes! 

"Paul, they'll hire another bureaucrat and audit your garbage," suggests Kia.


Mother Earth is weeping at the travesty.

Gasping from the recycling program shoved down our throats by the mafia, MMBC.

"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”
― Benjamin Franklin

Macnabb on the Money

Feisty ole' RDNO director Mike Macnabb has a good idea.
Just to get the attention of the new MMBC recycling managing director.

"Maybe we (should) get Allen Langdon's home address and keep sending (plastic bags and overwrap) items that now must be taken to two collection depots in Vernon, and keep sending it ..."

Yessirreebob...

Highlands Golf buys everything in bulk.
Here's a photo of the accumulation of recycle materials since May 19th, the advent of the "new program".

In the bin at right, all the plastic items that were formerly allowed to be recycled.  Now they are not.

Note that the Weston bread bags are no longer allowed in recycling!  (Note also that the George Weston company is the parent of Loblaws, one of the "corporate mafia" originators of this new program!)  Apart from my decision to, in future, no longer buy Weston bread, these materials were--prior to May 19, 2014--allowed to be recycled.

Yet another topical letter to the editor today, an excerpt of which is from Gloria Hillard:

"The blue bag system was much better for (seniors)."

Not just for seniors, Gloria.

And people are putting disallowed items into the landfill, which prompts the warning that Regional District staff will do audits at local landfills to determine if recyclable material is being trashed by residents.

Oh for heaven's sake, is that what we pay bureaucrats for?

To tear open black plastic bags at the landfill and see if there's inadmissible stuff in there.

Of course there will be!

Then, in the future, there'll be the need to hire an entirely new bureaucratic squad to levy fines to residents whose addresses they also found in those black bags.

And we'll call them bureaucratic nazis, working in tandem with the corporate mafia.

Why don't the bureaucrats just get off their high horses and threaten the B.C. government that this program must fail?

Politicians have no appetite to fight Victoria, it seems...probably because grants are at risk if they misbehave.

They'd rather browbeat residents...because they can.

Forget about looking for Langdon's home address.

"Let's send it all to Christy Clark, B.C. Premier, who OK'd this program, " says Kia, adding "we know her address."

Yup, we not only have her address.

We furnished her office.

“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”
Edward R. Murrow