Green Coast Rubbish is proud to announce we have won the 2016 Recycling Council of BC Private Sector Environmental Award in excellence and leadership in environmental stewardship. This award recognizes organizations or their employees with outstanding initiatives to preserve and protect our environment.
In creating our award application for the 2016 RCBC Environmental Award, it has allowed us to reflect on some of the accomplishments of our past 10 years of operations.
When Eamonn Duignan, President & CEO of Green Coast Rubbish, first started working in the waste removal industry 13 years ago there was little regard for the reuse or recyling potential of the material hauled.
Eamonn and his brother started Green Coast Rubbish in 2006 with a vision and passion to do it better, to find a more sustainable way and to maximize the reuse potential of material that was commonly treated as waste.
Green Coast Rubbish has always had a goal to achieve a minimum of 75% waste diversion rate each year. Since we started tracking our diversion rates in 2010, Green Coast has either met or exceeded that goal and achieved diversion rates of 86% in 2014 and 80% in 2015. In 2015 we hauled 634.69 tonnes of material for the year, and diverted 504.61 tonnes of material away from the landfill to alternative recycling and recovery waste stream sources.
During 10 years of operation, Green Coast Rubbish has recycled over 4 million pounds of material while striving to innovate the ways that waste is managed within our community. Examples include:
- We created a network of partnerships with local businesses that specialize in recycling materials such as foam, drywall, wood, plastic, glass, paint, compost, mattresses and e-waste to streamline the process of recycling for our projects.
- We formed an exclusive partnership with Vancouver’s only carpet recycler, Pacific Carpet Recycling, and now offer our clients carpet recycling in response to the significant problem of 80 million lbs of used carpet and underlay that are sent to Metro Vancouver’s landfills each year.
- Whenever possible, we look for inventive ways to divert furniture, clothing, materials and goods to deserving organizations that provide benefit to our community and have formed partnerships with many non-profit organizations including Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, Salvation Army, Canadian Diabetes Association, Helping Families in Need Society, and Spinal Cord Injury BC.
- We develop custom waste diversion solutions for our clients. For example, working with Metro Vancouver, we offered unique a one-day water-access-only drop off recycling event for cabin owners on Indian Arm. The event coincided with the national Great Canadian Shoreline clean-up where we collected, recycled and properly disposed of various materials that would have potentially ended up in our watershed.
- We have developed and are rolling out a one- of-a -kind binder recycling program for various commercial clients in response to the demand for this kind of service. With no other options for recycling, we will fully recover and recycle all binder components for our clients.
- We began offering deconstruction services to our clients in responsible to low construction waste recovery rates. As a result, we are able to salvage a wealth of materials for reuse and recycling including whole kitchens.
- We recently formed an exciting new partnership with Habitat for Humanity supporting their deconstruction program by diverting architectural waste from the landfill. This program also creates valuable opportunities for volunteers and raises money to build affordable housing in Greater Vancouver.
Metro Vancouver’s aspirational goal for waste diversion is 80% in 2020. Green Coast Rubbish has now exceeded that goal for the past two years and we are working towards Zero Waste as an aspirational goal by 2020 assuming new programs for recycling and reclaiming materials continue to become available.
“Winning this award means a lot to our team – it is truly an honour to be recognized for our efforts by the Recycling Council of BC which is such an outstanding organization. Receiving this award is an acknowledgment of all of our hard work over the years. It is a very proud moment for us.” – Eamonn Duignan, President & CEO, Green Coast Rubbish.
