Photo: Contributed

The RDOS is consulting with businesses on ways to reduce waste going into landfills.

Businesses will be able to bring ideas and concerns regarding waste diversion to officials tonight at a public meeting.

The 'business brainstorm on recycling' runs from 4:00-6:00 p.m. on Wednesday at Boston Pizza, and will be hosted by the Penticton Chamber of Commerce. 

The Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen, partnered with Greenstep Solutions, will be present to consult with businesses in the region and address challenges that local groups face in reducing waste. 

A similar meeting was held on Tuesday night in Osoyoos and was well-attended, according to the RDOS.

Cameron Baughen, solid waste management coordinator for the RDOS, says these meetings are part of the public consultation phase for developing an improved recycling plan for South Okanagan businesses.

"We’ve seen a large decrease of recycling in garbage from residential homes, and that’s because they have easy access to recycling services", Baughen said. "With businesses, we find a lot recyclables in their garbage… What we determined is that the business sector has barriers that the residential sector doesn’t have.

"When we speak to businesses at this brainstorming workshop tonight in Penticton, the purpose is to learn more as to the barriers for them to do recycling, to discuss potential options, and to move forward and develop strategies that we can then bring to the greater business community later".

Baughen added that the RDOS will hope to model a waste-diversion plan that was implemented by the Central Okanagan Regional District, which was a three-year project. 

"What we heard a lot from last night (in Osoyoos) was thank you. What they appreciated was consultation, and that’s what we learned when we looked at the (CORD project)."

The RDOS will also look to bring recycling ideas from consultation to elected officials at a later time.