Why We Need TIRRA... Solid Waste Management

TIRRA has had a long history of dealing with garbage on Thetis. At some point after we managed to get a larger ferry, TIRRA arranged to have bins available, located where the returnable container is now. This was for members’ use who had paid their garbage fee for the year. It was always a significant amount of work for the treasurer to collect the funds and send out repeated notices.

Eventually the bins were moved inside the gate in conjunction with recycling. This ended up going onto a parcel tax system with the CVRD for funding. A bag fee was also introduced as a user pay for the garbage. A small “free store” was added to help neighbours re-purpose. E-spokes does a great job of assisting re-purposing.

When Covid hit, the recycle section was shut down and after significant discussions and meetings, a vote was held and the majority of members preferred to take their recycling to town. This left the garbage portion to stand alone with an attendant to open and monitor the yard. The garbage continues at a higher rate and the parcel tax is no longer charged. TIRRA leases a portion of the provincially owned yard and is required to carry 5M liability insurance. The garbage pick-ups happen 15 times a year and are shared by 5 other stake holders. TIRRA manages the pickup schedule.

At this point, Thetis enjoys a clean island with very little random dumping.

Thanks for reading!

(another in the series of short notes on what TIRRA does for us all, and why we need it.)

Veronica for the TIRRA Executive Board