The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary doesn’t think much of the provincial government’s response to their concerns around recycling mattresses.
In September, the RDKB wrote to the environment minister, asking her to reconsider a decision to exclude mattresses from producer-pay recycling programs.
In her response, Tamara Davidson said: “The current global economic climate has made it difficult to get by, and we are listening to concerns from British Columbians about affordability challenges. This has helped inform our decision not to regulate mattresses at this time.”
However, Davidson said the government remains “committed to the principle that producers should take responsibility for the products” and that the delay in regulating mattress recycling is temporary and not a change of direction.
“I found this not a very good reason,” RDKB chair Andy Morel told the board. “I thought it was really weak and a little too political for my liking. It’s a major problem in our landfills and there has to be better strategies to come up to deal with this.
“The province has been making inroads when it comes to extended producer responsibility, but this was a perfect opportunity and I really think it’s a big miss.”
The board was previously told by their staff that accepting mattresses in landfills causes “significant, unique and costly challenges,” since they are “extremely expensive to landfill, taking up large amounts of airspace and tend to bounce out of the garbage making compaction difficult.”
RDKB chief administrator Mark Andison told the board the Regional of Okanagan Similkameen is putting together a plan to further press the ministry on the issue and has asked other local governments who have written on the issue to provide them with their letters to create a package. Andison said he has passed the RDKB’s letter along.
Fruitvale director Bill Wenman said the government’s stance is confusing, and if they aren’t willing to help extend the life of landfills by putting measures in place to keep mattresses out of them, they should be willing to waive other restrictions.
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