Working to reduce waste in Fort St. John

Dzengo Mzengeza, Executive Director of the Northern Environmental Action Team, explains that the hope is to keep what can be reused or recycled out of landfills.

"Waste should actually be material that is unusable, material that is unwanted, material that isn't recyclable, and the only way that we can tell that we are diverting from our landfills is the amount of materials that go, for our case, to the Eco Depot."

Mzengeza says that for the past three years, an average of almost 2,000 tonnes of waste has been diverted from our landfill in Fort St. John alone. That's the highest diversion rate in the Peace Region, and it doesn't include composting. However, he says there's always room for improvement.

"It's a good figure, but we could be doing much more than that," he argues. "Our problem is not with the residents, our problem is basically with them ICI, the industry. We need to see more of that sector recycling and diverting waste."

NEAT offers a business waste assessment program to help any companies get started.

The main focus of this week is the car seat roundup. It's estimated there are hundreds of unused car seats in the region that were previously unable to be recycled. NEAT is collecting those cars seats, stripped of their fabric, belts, metal and cushions, from 9 a.m. to p.m. this week to be recycled free of charge.