With the snowline slowly sliding up the mountains and green shoots appearing on the trees it must be time to turn our thoughts to Earth Day once again.
This year there are a number of events to mark the April 22 occasion in the resort, including a new program to collect E-waste, which is old electronic waste such as outdated computers, terminals, keyboards and monitors.
They can be brought to the SLRD offices parking lot on Saturday, April 24 th or the Whistler landfill for recycling on Sunday, April 25 th .
The E-Waste will be transported to Calgary where the products will be dismantled and treated in an environmentally sound way. It’s an expensive program and is being sponsored in part by Carney's Waste Systems, SLRD, Resort Municipality of Whistler, AWARE, and the Whistler Blackcomb Envirofund.
The Whistler Rotary Club is also sponsoring the collection and recycling of old cell phones, which will be collected at the landfill during Pitch-In week.
Environment Canada predicts that 72,000 tones of E Waste will be disposed of nationally in 2005, with an additional 4,328 tonnes of telecom equipment including telephones, fax machines and mobile phones.
The resort sponsored Pitch-In week will run in Whistler from April 19 th to the 25 th .
Pitch-In Canada and the Pitch-In movement encourage individuals, or groups to show their concern for our world. Groups who want to register for Pitch-In and receive bags for collection of debris can contact Andy Chalk at the Resort Municipality of Whistler at 935-8300.
Locals can make use of free landfill days in Whistler on Saturday and Sunday, April 24 th and 25 th . Residents bring their garbage but it must be sorted into tires, appliances, compost, steel, paint or general refuse. Commercial haulers will continue to pay the appropriate landfill fees on that weekend.
Organic waste entering the landfill on free dump weekend will be transported and composted into a top quality soil amendment at Carney’s Organic Recycling facility.
Organic compostable waste must be sorted into the following groups: material that does not need to be chipped, such as grass clippings, wood requiring chipping which must be divided into brush, clean dimensional lumber, and wood with paint and laminates on it.
Volunteers are needed to adopt an area of town to Pitch-In and clean up.
Whistlerites will also get a chance to ride the WAVE of the future on Earth Day this year.
The Cummins Westport Natural Gas bus will be added to the WAVE's most popular route, Village to Creekside.
This 40-foot New Flyer bus is powered by a third generation natural gas engine. The alternative fuel engine has been in production since June 2001 and is in service in Tacoma, San Diego, Sacramento, Washington D.C. and Hamilton. The bus engine meets 2007 emissions standards for particulate matters.
The bus ride will be free, of course, as is all Whistler transit on Earth Day. The free bus service is sponsored by the municipality.
Spring Creek Elementary School is getting a head start on Pitch-In week with a grounds clean-up tomorrow between 9 a.m. and noon.
"We just want to get a little more usable space for the kids," said Parent Advisory Council chair Barb Leigh.
There is still quite a lot of construction debris on the grounds, which the school board is working to remove.
The kids at the school will also celebrate Earth Day a day late, next Friday, by taking part in a Walk-A-Thon. This will be a PAC fundraiser for the school stage.
The walk will be from Spring Creek to Millar’s Pond. The children will be taking bags along with them and picking up garbage as they walk.
