Coun. Jeremy Caradonna said he was surprised to learn that most schools in Victoria don’t have recycling programs
Victoria is looking into expanding its solid waste collection service to include schools, libraries and community centres.
Council has asked staff to study the feasibility of adding the three to an ongoing study of options for providing municipal solid waste collection services for multi-family buildings.
Strata corporations and building owners are currently paying to have waste collected by private firms, as is the Greater Victoria School District. The waste study began in 2023 and is expected to come back to council this fall with information on the costs of providing waste collection for the city’s multi-family buildings.
Coun. Jeremy Caradonna said he was surprised to learn that most schools in Victoria don’t have recycling programs.
“I do think it’s an exciting opportunity to think about how the city could be supporting environmentally beneficial practices at schools and other public sector buildings. I do think it’s quite a big problem that our children in SD61 schools, including my kids, are not having the opportunity to be involved in recycling and composting,” he said.
Caradonna’s motion came after a request from the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association, which said in a letter to council that there is no recycling collection in schools “other than ad hoc programs run by volunteers within some schools.”
“Teachers feel strongly that as educators, we should be modelling the sustainable waste practices that we teach about,” the letter says. “Unfortunately, this is not currently feasible.”
The school district said it contracts out waste collection from school sites to Waste Management, and recycling and compost programs are not standardized across the district, though there are recycling programs in some schools.
Organization of those programs is left to school clubs, volunteer groups and individual classes, the district said.
The city is developing a new solid-waste-collection service for multi-family buildings — a measure that could account for 4,100 tonnes of the anticipated 5,735 tonnes of waste the city hopes to divert from the landfill.
It would include developing waste-collection space requirements for new buildings, and improving both re-use options and recycling access for bulky items and materials not currently included in curbside collection services.
Of the estimated 180,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste dumped at Hartland Landfill each year, about 45,000 tonnes comes from residents and businesses in Victoria.
Caradonna noted that while the school district would have to pay the city for garbage, recycling and compost pickup, the city provides competitive rates and a high level of service.
“The idea here would be, in theory, that schools, libraries and community centres could opt into this public utility and have garbage, recycling and compost all picked up by one service,” he said.
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