BCUOMA Ambassador Travelog

Halfway through our first week of work, we visited many collection facilities throughout Lower Mainland’s North Shore. The week began in beautiful West Vancouver, and tomorrow will be our last day in North Vancouver. The breathtaking view of the waterfront area added sparks to this area!

The first BCUOMA facility we visited was Dundarave Automotive where we found out some first-hand information on how their recycle their used oil and antifreeze. This facility not only collects both of these liquids, but also their containers and filters. So if you ever need to dispose of these products environmentally friendly, please don’t throw them in the trash but bring them here!

Today, we spent most of the day at the North Shore Automall, where we not only met with friendly and insightful staff, but also saw some of the great new cars for sale that came out this year. The Volvo dealership even let us sit in Jim Pattison’s very own old school vehicle!
At Mr. Lube on Marine Drive, manager Ash took us on a tour to the bottom of the garage where all of the tire changing and storage is located. We saw the largest used oil and antifreeze containers we have seen to date. One of the workers even brought us delicious hot chocolate, thank you for that!

Lastly, a picture of us will be appearing in North Vancouver’s Outlook magazine, released next Thursday so grab a copy next week!

-Team 2

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Sonia at Canadian Tire on Main Street

Last Saturday, Jordana and I spent our day at Science World for their Green Month display. We set up a beautiful booth surrounded by with banners, brochures, and useful freebies for visitors. Situated at the entrance of the very attractive and interactive BMO Sustainability Gallery.

We had a number of parents with young children approaching us to inquire about what we do. Although not all visitors knew about used oil and antifreeze recycling, all were fascinated by the program’s work and were glad it exists!

Sonia and Jordana at their BCUOMA booth

Our give away squeegees and tire gauges were extremely popular, even among kids who were too young to know what they were used for. Jordana and I had a blast telling young children about recyling in hopes of inspiring and educating a new generation. We even played some games with them in the Sustainability Gallery!

Since then, we have visited various facilities around the breathtaking North Shore and will continue our visits in that area and Richmond for the remainder of this week!

Remember to come and say hi to us if you see our oil painted car in your neighborhood!

-Team 2

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As one of two Ambassador teams canvassing British Columbia for the 2013 Summer Ambassadors tour, we are proud to promote BC Used Oil Management Association’s message “every drop counts”. BCUOMA is a not-for-profit organization which aims to promote the responsible recycling of used oil, used antifreeze and their containers. We will be spreading their message throughout numerous communities in the province.

We will have our usual partnerships with 3 other Stewardships; Electronics Stewardship Association of B.C. (ESABC), Product Care (PC), and the Post Consumer Pharmaceutical Stewardship Association (PCPSA), however this year we are excited to announce that Tire Stewardship BC (TSBC) will be joining the fold. A not-for-profit organization, TSBC handles the province’s scrap tire recycling program.

Using our 2013 Chevrolet Trax, which is covered in cool oil decals, our tour will take us around British Columbia, stopping in the regions of Metro Vancouver, the Okanagan, Vancouver Island, Thompson-Nicola, Northern BC, Squamish-Whistler and the Sunshine Coast.

Come check us out at our first event this Saturday, May 11th, where we will be handing out brochures and squeegees at Vancouver’s Tire Round-up. The location is at the OK Tire 1843 Kingsway, Vancouver, and it starts at 10 am. Bring in your scrap tires for recycling and be sure to visit our booth!

Over the next four months we will be blogging about our adventures traveling the province. Be sure to check out our daily posts written by one of the four Ambassadors at www.bcusedoil.com

You can also follow us on twitter @BCUsedOil. Follow our tweets to find out when we will be visiting your community! We look forward to spreading the message of responsible recycling this summer.

It’s officially our last day as BC Used Oil Management Summer Ambassadors and we are feeling a little sad to leave. We’ve had such an incredible time touring the province, seeing more areas of BC than most people ever see.

Over the course of our 17 weeks, we have managed to visit over 500 Return Collection Facilities from 146 municipalities. There aren’t many people in the province that can say they have visited every Canadian Tire in BC!

This summer Emily and I both learned a lot and had a couple new experiences, such as being on camera for the first time (yikes!) while being interviewed for CKPG in Prince George, learning about the current issues regarding recycling in the province, and not to mention putting over 17,000 kilometers on our oil slick car. We have a new found love for landfills, after exploring places like the Hartland Recycling Depot in Victoria, BC, which was not just a dump but an expansive home for wildlife. We also have a new appreciation for satellite radio and our trusty GPS…

The things we have learned in this position have taught us valuable knowledge about stewardship programs and their importance in British Columbia. If all British Columbians take the time to look into stewardship programs such as the BC Used Oil Management Association, we can help keep our planet clean for future generations. As we have learned, just one drop can make a difference; if you recycle your own oil, we are that much closer to increasing our Recovery Rates and improving the environment.

At the end of this summer, we are sitting at a 73% return rate on oil materials and 87% on the oil containers and filters. With our continued efforts, we hope that these rates will keep increasing.

Some of the highlights from our summer travels:

Horseback riding in Fernie

Snow in July! Who knew?!

My first in-studio radio interview!

We look forward to seeing how the program progresses next year and were so happy to be a part of it all. Thanks for everything, readers!