Click here to complete the survey and be eligible to win one of five $100 gift cards.

Survey deadline: February 28, 2025

RDOS SWMP Overview as presented to the RDOS Board on December 5, 2024, is available here from 2:11 to 2:33 (22 minutes).

Solid Waste Management Plan Review

The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) is updating its Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) and wants your input on how solid waste is managed in the region over the next decade. The SWMP reflects a long-term vision for how the RDOS will manage solid waste. Once approved by the Ministry of Environment and Parks the new plan will replace the previous 2012 SWMP.

Why do we need a SWMP?

• In this region, approximately 585 kilograms of garbage per person per year went to RDOS landfills. This adds up to approximately 53,000 metric tonnes per year. This amount of garbage is the equivalent of over 10,000 curbside garbage truck trips.
• Reducing garbage generation will help to manage costs over time, meet resident’s recycling and composting expectations, align with provincial and federal policies, protect the environment, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• More than 65% of what is thrown away as garbage can be diverted from landfills (recycled or composted).

Complete the survey here to be eligible to win one of five $100 gift cards.

As part of the Let’s Talk Less Trash consultation process, the SWMP survey will gather feedback on current and future recycling and garbage services. The survey results will be presented to the Public Advisory Committee (PAC) and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) for consideration. The survey is scheduled to run through the end of February 2025. Participants can enter to win one of five $100 gift cards. A second round of public engagement will take place later in 2025 after options have been developed.

The RDOS SWMP will focus on the five "R"s of the pollution prevention hierarchy as a tool to evaluate and prioritize future improvements: reduce, reuse, recycle (and compost), recover, and residual management.

The RDOS is currently looking at the following issues as priority considerations:

• Optimize disposal efficiency across the Solid Waste system – conduct waste disposal analysis with financial, environmental, and social considerations in mind
• Seek ways to prevent waste in the first place – enhance waste prevention education and behaviour change programs, improve reuse, repair and share infrastructure and systems, and support a circular economy approach
• Increase reuse and diversion opportunities across sectors for single-family (SF), multi-family (MF) and industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) through infrastructure, services, programs, and policies.
  • Organics
  • Recycling
  • Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste prevention/diversion