NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 9, 2015

Recycling Works: Progressive Program Creates

Opportunities for Youth.
(Victoria, BC) As part of a strategy to connect youth to meaningful work, the Community Social Planning
Council (CSPC) of Victoria is launching a recycling program that will create employment and training
opportunities for youth in the city. Recycling Works will begin accepting recyclable waste on Monday,
November 16, 2015, at the downtown depot on 626 Pembroke Street.
Victoria residents are encouraged to bring in items not already picked up at curbside: plastic packaging,
grocery bags, foam products, meat trays, electronics packaging, and more. A full list of what will be
accepted is available on the Recycling Works website: www.recyclingworksvictoria.org
By dropping off items at the depot, people in Victoria will be doing their part to help youth receive
workplace training and life-skills classes designed to prepare them for positions with local employers. The
program is part of CSPCs goal to lower the local youth unemployment rate from 14.3 per cent to 12
percent by 2017. Recycling Works is helping to achieve this goal by focusing on youth with barriers to
employment.
Nobody else would even interview me, says Johanna McBurnie, a seventeen-year-old high school
student who is completing her training with Recycling Works, If I stay for three months theyll teach me to
drive the forklift.
The project is not only preserving job security for the next generation, it is preserving natural resources
and the atmosphere by modelling what is possible.
I cant believe how much stuff we can bring in, says Marshall Holm, a local homeowner participating in
the test program, This week we only put out one bag of garbage, and we have four people in the house.
It feels great to keep this stuff out of the dump.
Half a million tonnes of waste would be diverted from the landfill every year if everybody in the city
recycled all of the items that Recycling Works accepts, says Dave Williams of the Resource Conservation
Council. Landfills produce 25 per cent of Canada's methane emissions.
We need to significantly lower our national methane output, says Williams. Methane is a potent
greenhouse gas with a global warming potential that is 30 times greater than carbon dioxide. Williams
says he expects this program will help change Victorias toxic output levels and set a new standard for
waste management on Vancouver Island and across BC.

Recycling Works: www.recyclingworksvictoria.org

Pathways to Success Report: The Power and Potential of Social Enterprise
Community Social Planning Council: www.communitycouncil.ca

Dan McNeill, Communications Officer, Recycling Works

250-580-7891 - DM@CommunityCouncil.ca