Circular Economy Transitions: Informal Recycling and Expanding the Deposit Refund System in BC

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dc.contributor.authorRae Harriss, Sam
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-16T15:57:18Z
dc.date.available2024-03-16T15:57:18Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.description.abstractThe overabundance of waste produced globally is a wicked environmental issue, and single-use items are a main source of much of this waste produced in Canadian cities. Existing literature has examined the contributions of informal recyclers, known as ‘binners’, ‘diverters’, and ‘valoristes’ in the Canadian context, to urban waste management, particularly through the organizing of local binners into nonprofits and cooperatives. The purpose of this study was to examine the possibility of expanding the provincial deposit refund system in BC to include coffee cups, a change that has been advocated for by binners in BC through the annual public Coffee Cup Revolution event since 2014. This study suggests that an expansion of the refund system in BC to include coffee cups would make it affordable for binners to recover these recyclable materials, supporting typically vulnerable populations in conducting environmentally beneficial work. The greatest barrier to such a change identified was the lack of political will to actively advocate for a provincial refund system expansion. Overall, it is argued that by increasing opportunities for participatory governance methods in waste management decision making, it is possible to improve collaboration between binners, government, and industry and effectively address the social, economic, and environmental facets of waste in BC.
dc.description.reviewstatusReviewed
dc.description.scholarlevelUndergraduate
dc.description.sponsorshipJamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/16146
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of Victoria
dc.subjectwaste management
dc.subjectwaste
dc.subjectinformal recycling
dc.subjectdeposit refund system
dc.subjectcircular economy
dc.subjectenvironmental management
dc.titleCircular Economy Transitions: Informal Recycling and Expanding the Deposit Refund System in BC
dc.typePoster

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