In this episode of The Whistler Podcast, Mayor Jack Crompton and Cole Stefiuk talk waste diversion, climate action, adapting operations during COVID, circular economy and the new ReLoveIt online store with Dave Clark and Lori Pyne of the Whistler Community Services Society (WCSS). October’s theme in Whistler’s Climate Action BIG MOVES Strategy is: Let’s love this place, reduce our waste. Lori and Dave detail how they accomplish this by reducing single-use plastics, minimizing food waste, buying second hand clothes, and they also share that the Re-Build-It Centre has tools for borrowing, to help people restore and repair.
In this episode of The Whistler Podcast, Mayor Jack Crompton and Cole Stefiuk talk waste diversion, climate action, adapting operations during COVID, circular economy and the new ReLoveIt online store with Dave Clark and Lori Pyne of the Whistler Community Services Society (WCSS). October’s theme in Whistler’s Climate Action BIG MOVES Strategy is: Let’s love this place, reduce our waste. Lori and Dave detail how they accomplish this by reducing single-use plastics, minimizing food waste, buying second hand clothes, and they also share that the Re-Build-It Centre has tools for borrowing, to help people restore and repair.
Vedder walks out, playing the opening to Smile, which is probably like in the top two favorite songs of Pearl Jam for me, I was overwhelmed I'm bawling and he turns to me, he's like, you okay? I'm like, yeah, it's like my favourite song.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Hello everyone. I am Jack Crompton. He is Cole Stefiuk. And this is The Whistler Podcast. I want to acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional unceded territory of the Lil'wat Nation and the Squamish Nation. Cole. How are things?
Cole Stefiuk:Things are stressful, Jack. Very much so. Yeah. I am, uh, moving in a couple of days after we record this or moving my girlfriend to the mainland from the island, which is just going to be so stressful. So busy. Yeah.
Mayor Jack Crompton:So do you, did you, do you have a moving truck? Are you using your car? What's the story?
Cole Stefiuk:We booked like a 15 foot truck. Okay. So I'm driving the truck and then they called us today and said, there is no 15 foot truck for the, your move out date, which is the 31st. So they're giving us a 26 foot truck. I'm terrified. Cause I got to drive this thing onto the ferry all the way to the Sea to Sky from Campbell River. I'm just stressing out a little bit about that. That's what's getting to me right now,
Mayor Jack Crompton:But I understand that your stresses will leave you tonight at 7:00 PM.
Cole Stefiuk:Yes. Yes. I will give myself I'm off tomorrow to start packing and to between you and I, uh, I might be a little hung over when I do that packing because tonight we're recording, this is the first night that the Canucks are back in action with a full house and I got a ticket, so, and who
Mayor Jack Crompton:Are they? Who are they
Cole Stefiuk:Playing the Minnesota wild, which is not as exciting, but you know, it's the first game back in almost 600 days. Um, and it's the home opener. It's the first full crowd in BC, probably since the last Canucks game. If we're being honest back in March of 2020. So yeah, I'm just, I'm just stoked.
Mayor Jack Crompton:I have a, a dream Cole, a hockey dream it's to go to see the Canucks in Seattle playing the Kraken. I'm going to have a sign and it's going to say Seattle's lousy. It rains all the time. Go Canucks.
Cole Stefiuk:I think that's perfect. I think it's perfect. That's really funny,
Mayor Jack Crompton:Right? It's not a big dream. It's a small dream, but you know, it's born and raised raised. Yeah. And you know, as a Canucks fan I've, you've never had the enemy. Like we kind of, we didn't like Chicago for awhile. We didn't like Boston for a while for a while. We didn't like Calgary or Edmonton, but now we get somebody that we can genuinely be upset with. And I am, I just am upset with the Kraken. And I, I think that, you know,
Cole Stefiuk:Yeah, I know I was a little disappointed that we didn't get any like rough stuff in the game last week in Seattle, the first game was hoping for a scrap or something just to kind of cement the rivalry.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah, it's, it's cemented. It is the rivalry is cemented. Yes.
Cole Stefiuk:We better beat them every game this year. It's going to be sad if we, if they beat us in the playoffs or something like, whew,
Mayor Jack Crompton:No we're going to, we're going to beat them every time we play them for the rest of history. Right. Let's move to last week's headlines. I'll read you three and you, uh, choose one. Uh, the first one is: How can BC municipalities better direct spending. Second is Whistler RCMP warn of online rental scams. And the third is: Have your say on construction noise. We've got municipal spending, rental scams or construction noise.
Cole Stefiuk:But usually when we have these, I pick the ones that I most relate to. Um, I I'm going to go with the rental scams. Is that a, is that a big, big thing that's going on right now is it happening to a lot of residents? Yeah.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah. And it seems to go in cycles before to say something that makes me feel old: before the internet.
Cole Stefiuk:Yeah.
Mayor Jack Crompton:There was people would advertise, you know, fake units in the newspaper and then it would be a little bit easier to track. It's pretty hard. I think from what I can tell, talking to the police to track down some of these scams, they just peel a lot of the information that's on the internet and invent a unit. And then, because it's such a heated, uh, rental housing market ask people to, you know, transfer money and they do. And that's just not something you should be doing right now because you'll lose your money. So make sure you take the time to understand whether your landlord is a real person and, and, uh, whether the unit's real, I think one of the ways to deal with that as to if you can meet the person at the unit.
Cole Stefiuk:Yeah. Uh, obviously, cause we talked about it already, but like we're moving into a new apartment and finding the apartment. I was a little, I mean, I didn't know how big of a problem this was, but I was really on edge, you know, contacting people, whether it's on, you know, Craigslist, Kijiji, Marketplace, whatever, and being, and it just, I felt sketched out a little bit because I was worried about, I was so worried. It didn't happen, but you know, I didn't know it was actually that big of a problem. So I guess my worries were, you know, vindicated.
Mayor Jack Crompton:And what's, there's a bit of a target because rental rates are high and because there is turnover. And so, um, people make decisions that aren't the best because they're desperate. They want to find a place to live. So be careful, be careful. Yeah,
Cole Stefiuk:Absolutely.
Mayor Jack Crompton:All right. So we should get to talking Dave Clark and Lori Pyne about the Whistler Community Services. And this month's big vision around small steps for BIG MOVES, love this place, reduce our waste. The Resort Municipality of Whistler is launching a year long campaign to encourage every resident in Whistler to make small changes in their lives that will have a meaningful impact on their ability to reduce their contribution to climate change and really help us move towards our big moves. We're calling it small steps for big moves and each month there is a, um, a theme that is sort of going to be celebrated that month. And this month, the month of October is love this place, reduce our waste. And we're so pleased to have two people who know a tremendous amount about reducing waste in this community. Um, and they are Dave Clark and Lori Pyne from Whistler Community Services Society. Uh, these are two people that, uh, have served our town for a long time and very well. They are, uh, champions for people. And interestingly, they are champions for the reduction of waste in our town. So grateful that you both took the time to join us today. Welcome Dave. Welcome Lori. I look forward to chatting to you about the community services and the Reuse It Center, waste management, all of those important things, but we always start our podcasts with rapid fire. So, uh, here we go. Dave Clark, what music are you listening to?
Dave Clark:Pearl Jam
Mayor Jack Crompton:Still always. I know that's the thing.
Dave Clark:It's been 30 years since 10 came out. This is a whole other episode. Okay. I'm happy to talk music anytime.
Mayor Jack Crompton:I know. Thank you. Lori.
Lori Pyne:Fish and King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Have you ever followed Fish around?
Lori Pyne:I have.
:I am a fish hea, I love fish. It's been a awhile, but when's the last time you saw fish? Two years ago at the Gorge. Oh wow. That's recent. It's been probably, I dunno, 10 years for me, man. Fish is good for people who aren't fish listeners. You should be official there. Uh, Dave, what are you most curious about these days?
Dave Clark:The weather,
Mayor Jack Crompton:The weather, like as whether it's going to snow or not?
Dave Clark:No, I'm curious. And this is something I need to learn more about. I'm curious about these. Are we just naming these? What seem like extreme episodes with new names is extreme episodes of weather or are we actually seeing something very different in our systems? Like whether it's the heat dome or whatever this thing they call it in Vancouver the other day, the atmospheric river. I've never heard that one before
Mayor Jack Crompton:We're talking in our car the other day about a bomb cyclone.
Dave Clark:Yes. The bomb cyclone on Vancouver. Okay. That's the bomb. I dunno. Like,
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah, no, that's funny that you mentioned that we had a long conversation about just that in the car about whether these are new names for, for things that have existed or whether these are new phenomena all together. It's probably a bit of both I would imagine.
Dave Clark:Yeah, for sure. The weather systems are evolving and adapting as much as we are. So yeah,
Mayor Jack Crompton:Totally. Lori, what are you most curious about these days?
Lori Pyne:Oh, I'm curious about how we're going to continue to instill hope in our youth because there's a lot of, I don't know, not a great, like this whole climate action thing is really hard. And so how do we get up every day with hope and aspiration, um, to do better. And I'm really curious about, I have a 12 year old son and I just hope that he's hopeful in his life. Cause it's pretty dreary. Sometimes waking up to how many people have died, how many people are going to continue to die. And I don't know. It's that's, that's my curiosity right now.
Dave Clark:Can I jump in Jack? You can really quickly, if you have not read this book, it's called Factfullness. By Hans Rosling. This book gives you hope. It is fantastic. I'll leave it at that. But there are many dog earred pages in my copy because I go back to them almost daily, uh, to remind myself that we're actually on the right trajectory, even though it doesn't feel like it's sometimes
Mayor Jack Crompton:A book to read. Um, Dave, if you were going to cook Cole and I dinner at your house tomorrow night, what would you, what would you cook for us?
Dave Clark:Probably a vegan chickpea curry. That's like one of my favorites.
Mayor Jack Crompton:It's spicy.
Dave Clark:You can make it spicy if you want. I don't tend to, I kind of go on the one to two on a scale of five. I can take it spicy if you want to, that with a little bit of garlic now
Mayor Jack Crompton:And who taught you to do that yourself? Wow. Okay. Lori, what are we having for dinner at your house?
Lori Pyne:It's pizza all the way. And it's from COVID it's pizza. Well now actually I couldn't make it for you tomorrow because it takes three days to make pizza dough everybody
Mayor Jack Crompton:Three days, why it has to rise or something like that.
Lori Pyne:Rise and fall rise in- the fridge out of the fridge. It's a baby. It's a baby. It's great. It's great. Chicago-style pizza.
Cole Stefiuk:I thought that was crazy. At first. My girlfriend makes pizza all the time and you can make it in two hours the dough, but if you let it sit for a few days, I don't know what it does. Magic, no magic. So, uh, yeah.
Mayor Jack Crompton:All right, let's talk trash. Why don't we start with Dave, Dave, tell me about, uh, your personal waste reduction efforts in your life right now.
Dave Clark:Thanks Jack. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having us. Um, you know, it's interesting this last 20 months of COVID has sort of put a new lens on things for me, for sure. I've always been pretty conscious about what I buy and where I buy it and all those kinds of things, but I seem to be a much more heightened. My wife will attest to this no more online shopping rants that I have in my house. Um, but it's, it's really put a lens on it for me of, you know, we need to support local. We need to shop local. We need to really ask ourselves, do I need this or do I wanted, and when it comes up as a want, is it something that I'm gonna add purpose to my life? So I think when you ask me what I do, that's what I seem to be doing in a personal approach to sort of trying to reduce my waste as do I need this? Need it great. That's one thing. Do I want it? Uh, what is it, what values are gonna add to my life or the lives of those around me? So that's been my approach lately.
Mayor Jack Crompton:That's a good word to describe your life. Dave is purpose. It seems like everything you do, you do with the sort of consciousness of the purpose that you intend for it. So I like that idea of, of what is the purpose of the actions that I'm taking. That's good. How will you, Lori? What about, uh, your, I mean, obviously you are the guru of, of community, uh, diversion, but what about personally, what's going on in your life as far as small steps in Lori Pyne's life?
Lori Pyne:It certainly has come from the work I do. It was the community services, but it's really, for me now really thinking, rethinking the consumption of that item. So very similar to Dave, like, do I need this? Do I want it, but rethinking the whole process because when you get one ton of waste, there's already been 71 tons of waste before the end product, before you even get to the garbage factor. And so it's really rethinking the whole process from start to finish, not just the finish.
Mayor Jack Crompton:So what, so the 71 tons of waste to produce the one ton of waste that's that's production, transport, all of those things that lead up to that piece of garbage
Lori Pyne:Packaging, carbon emissions. Um, yes, all those things is 71 times before the one 10 I'm so used to dealing with the one time. Cause that's what we get on average every day is the one time. And it's hard to imagine they actually call it a waste berg. They talk about the waste berg. And so that 71 tons is underneath that you don't see in, you only see the, the landfill piece,
Mayor Jack Crompton:It's a waste berg waste bird. That is frightening. They're going to make a horror movie about waste bergs taking over the earth. Um, so tell us about how was the community services started as, as it relates to, um, getting involved in waste? Well, actually let's start with wizard community services overall. Dave, how did we start, uh, Wister community services in this community?
Dave Clark:Well, it was the brain child of a few, uh, social pioneers in this town back in 1989. Um, when there was a desire to support, uh, you know, those that were here working primarily and things really haven't changed. Some of our most vulnerable people are the ones that are here, uh, you know, putting, uh, sort of the oil on the cog, so to speak the ones that are actually making the place turn. Um, and we're still supporting those people. So 32 years later, but you know, it started with, you know, we've got a quiet time of year here, two quiet times a year, two or three quiet times a year, really back then. Um, and how do we make sure that those that have kept this town afloat and running and operating and being the economic engine that it was building to be, um, how do we keep them safe and healthy and happy and fed. And so that was sort of the early days of the food bank, really? Lor, what, uh, what do you hope to add to that?
Lori Pyne:Yeah, then I would just add, um, I'm more still bit building on it. Today is the addition of an, our first outreach worker was, which was Greg McDonnell back in the day and that real synergy of the food bank and the outreach that is more holistic way of supporting a community member. And, uh, then eventually in 2000 was the birth of the Reuse It Center. My understanding was it was supported by the mayor and council at the time that identified, uh, that it could potentially be a revenue maker and, uh, we've just run for it ever since the municipal, uh, Allity spliced the building for us to make it viable. And yeah, we're just building on it now we've got four or five social enterprises going.
Mayor Jack Crompton:And so the very first aspect of which can be services was the food bank. Huh. And how many services does whiskey services offering and can you list them all and go!
Lori Pyne:Right. Like, I don't know. I think we're running into with 26 programs right now
Mayor Jack Crompton:Uh, and they include anything from counseling assistance to financial assistance to li legal, uh, services and assistance. Yeah.
Lori Pyne:We have a pro bono program for sure. We have a electronic assistance program for community members. We've got a play credits for kids that to make it more accessible to, um, sports programming. Um, outreach is a big one. It's just meeting people where they're at finding out, do they miss their sister? And they just want to tell someone they miss their sister or do they need help paying the rent and we advocate how they can go about doing that. Um, yeah, lots of different programming.
Mayor Jack Crompton:And talk to me about the, the beginnings of their Reuse It Center. You said that, uh, it was a concept jumped up by by residents and, and the, and the municipality provided the building and was the original intent revenue to serve these programs or was it about waste diversion originally? Do you know?
Lori Pyne:Well, that's a really good question. I can't actually answer that. I can't answer that, but I would like to think now, I don't know if social enterprise was a word back then, but that's basically a revenue maker for social good. And so I think Whistler Community Services stepped up to the plate, seeing that opportunity.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah. And how much waste do we divert in a year through the reuse it and rebuild it centers,
Lori Pyne:Just Reuse It and Rebuild It alone. Um, over a thousand tons, sorry, over a thousand kilos a day. So for instance, farm April this year, we've done 180,000 kilos for reuse it alone, kept out of the landfill. And so, um, 90% of that makes it on the floor and 10% is kept out of the landfill.
Mayor Jack Crompton:And when you say kept at the landfill, what is, what's the difference between makes it onto the floor and kept it at a landfill?
Lori Pyne:So we have textile recycling clothes that are stained or dirty that can't make it onto the floor. And then we've got electronic recycling. So if someone donates a printer and it's broken, it can't be resold, it gets recycled. Um, we do metal recycling, glass recycling, cardboard recycling.
Mayor Jack Crompton:And talk to me about, uh, the people, listeners may have heard of the concept of the circular economy. What is the circular economy?
Lori Pyne:So we in the past years have been living in a linear economy where the product starts in one form, ends in another form and then eventually ends in waste. And now we're really putting value into every step. And so there shouldn't be any waste at the end, um, and whistler community services is so awesome because we are our own little circular economy. Do you want to speak to that a little bit, Dave, you had a great analogy for it
Dave Clark:Absolutely. Yeah. It's I, I see the circular economy and the sort of the circular societal economy overlapping in such an enormous way and that, you know, we have, you know, these, it starts with these donations. If we want to start at sort of the, for looking at a cycle of a product or what have you. So we're looking at something gets donated at their reuse of center to be resold in the store. So it gets there's somebody that gets employed to do that. And then there is the sale of that product and the money that comes in, which then supports programming through Whistler community services, which is supporting much of our workforce, who are supporting our employers for supporting our tourism based economy who are supporting our tourists, who are then supporting ultimately our residents. And then those residents start with making a donation at the Reuse It Center. And so it goes as a great big cycle. And so it's not just strictly about money and delivery of programs. It's about social wellbeing as a bigger picture. And I wholeheartedly believe that that donation that's made at the Reuse It Center not only provides money. And then that's the end of the story. It supports the person who's running the lift. It supports the person who's, you know, operating one of our retail stores for whatever reason they need access to a program that we've got. Um, and so, you know, when we drop something off at the donation center, uh, at that 8,000 Nestor's road, it's not simply generating a dollar or two to go towards a program it's generating so much more within the social infrastructure of the community. Um, and those services, one thing we've really seen, and I'm going to dive down a little bit of a rabbit hole here, but over the course of COVID is the requirement or the, um, need to ask for help has grown so much in our community and
Mayor Jack Crompton:And the capacity and the, maybe the courage of people to actually do that as well. You know, like there's been a need, but also in a lot of ways, the stigma has been, it's not gone, but it's being lowered to the point where people have the courage to actually reach out and ask for the help that they need. Certainly.
Dave Clark:Absolutely. No, that's it. That's perfect. That's exactly where I was going was a donation of a pair of pants and the reuse it center not only is creating dollar revenue for programs by doing that, the sort of trickle down effect as it were breaking down stigmas, because we've got more programs available for more people, which makes it easier to access. The more people that access them, the more the barriers come down, the more the stigma comes down until that wall is crumbled completely. And we have everybody accessing the services that are required for healthy living in this community. And that's what we're seeing happening. And it's unbelievable when we think of the circular economy and social circular, social economy that a pair of jeans that gets donated to somebody just literally doesn't want anymore can have that level of effect, right. To me, it's it's mind blowing. It's so awesome.
Mayor Jack Crompton:That's pretty special. That's that's true. Talk to us about COVID. My understanding is that waste production has gone way, way up, um, at the beginning, I assume it was a lot harder to do your work, Lori, to be able to actually keep doors open and make sure everyone was safe. Um, talk to us about the reuse it center, making it through COVID and what you've seen related to, uh, how we deal with waste.
Lori Pyne:Uh, sure. So, um, when we had to close for COVID, it was pretty tricky. So for social enterprises, our funding model for WCSS, and we didn't have that funding model for about two and a half months when we were able to reopen everyone, Mari Kondo-ed, their house, and cleaned everything out. So we were actually getting over 2000 kilos a day and we were quarantining it in three different, um, shipping containers for three days. Cause that was before we knew what we know now. And, and we were just doing what we needed to do. Um, something that really came prevalent during COVID was, um, where nonprofits sort of fall behind or in the digitization of, of their program delivery. And we didn't even really have a really good working website at that point. Um, and so one of our new social enterprises is, um, looking towards a digital platform so that we would have a revenue maker if indeed we need to close down again.
Mayor Jack Crompton:And that's, that's the Re Love It online store
Lori Pyne:That's Re Love It, online store, little bit different it's um, curated, um, more secondhand stuff. Um, whereas reuse it centers, thrifty, more whimsical, lots of treasures. Um, Re love It. We're really focusing on sustainable, um, sustainable labels. Um, cause there are companies out there they're usually higher end, but they're doing things when I talk about rethinking, um, before we get to the wastage, they're doing all those things. And so they do tend to be a little more expensive.
Mayor Jack Crompton:And the, and is that, where is it reloveit.ca or what's the
Lori Pyne:Handle of a store? ReLoveItstore.com You can link to it right on our website, but um, it's uh, yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty awesome. We got a grant from the British, from British Columbia, uh, for launching a digital enterprise. And so that's what we've done.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Do you deliver?
Lori Pyne:We don't deliver at this point, Jack it's pickup only at this point. So it's a very regional regional initiative at this point,
Mayor Jack Crompton:But I can purchase those pair of pants that are going to fund programs online and then drop by and pick them up.
Lori Pyne:That's right. So it's also making it more accessible. There's people that don't want to shop in the stores right now as well. So it's making it more available to a different clientele than we've had in the past. Um, the gen X-ers are the ones that are really, really pushing this. Um, it's called reselling and it tends to happen online secondhand reselling online, whereas thrift is usually offline. Um, so still just, just trying to get more stuff out to the community in programming is what we're trying to aim for with that.
Cole Stefiuk:The ReLoveIt store online is great by the way, guys, I'm just checking it out and I have been listening, but I've also been focusing on the stuff online. It's a very cool, and I've just been shopping while we've been doing the past few minutes.
Lori Pyne:Yeah. It makes it very accessible for you to go shopping then isn't it. But it's not the reuse it center online. It's not, it's curated sustainable items really you'll see a difference of the, of the stuff that's on there to what's in the store.
Mayor Jack Crompton:What are you going to bought? What are you going to buy?
Cole Stefiuk:Well, they've got a couple of sweaters that I was looking at on the store right now and I'm sure that it'll it'll keep rotating. So I'll definitely be buying a few things from there for sure.
Mayor Jack Crompton:We're talking like a knitted sweater.
Cole Stefiuk:No, there's, there's one, there's one Stripe shirt that I'm looking at right now. I don't want to give too much away. Cause then before it's all done, it'll be sold. You know what I mean? I don't want to get too excited for it over here.
Mayor Jack Crompton:You're talking to, you've got Lori and Dave here. They could probably help with that striped shirt.
Cole Stefiuk:I love that. This is a thing now to be honest, it makes the whole process a lot more fun and like it, yeah, it's all super trendy clothes I think. And whistler has got a lot of trendy people, so that's usually not a problem anyway, but,
Dave Clark:And the thing is that when you do shop there again, it feeds back into that whole system that has been created over 32 years. Right? And so it allows a group of people that may not want to or feel they should go to a thrift store or what have you, or for a variety of reasons. They're just not comfortable with going shopping in general or preferred online shop. And so it really opens up a market that we haven't really been able to reach in the past. So it's a
Lori Pyne:It's supposed to grow about five times in the next two years. And one of the reasons is because Patagonia, Lululemon and LL Bean and, and all the Arc'teryx, they're going to resell their own product and they're doing it online and they're doing it with incentives. And so we're just, it's just good business for good community. That's our line that we're just starting to be ahead of the curve a little bit and, um, be part of this huge growing industry.
Mayor Jack Crompton:And you do have, um, you do some pickup. Who do you think you'd ever do delivery with the Re Love It or no?
Lori Pyne:Well, I never say never here. Flexible and adaptive. Um, no, but honestly we've just really soft launched it and we were just getting the bugs out of the digital platform first of all. And then I think that there's no reason why we couldn't move to delivery scenario if it was feasible.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah. Very cool. Do you feel like you've, you'll have a takeaway from COVID that will be a learning that you take into the future that you wouldn't have go without it?
Lori Pyne:Yes. I realized that you can't really plan for anything there's never really a good time. Uh, yeah. You could have a meeting, you know, for an hour in the morning and it would be totally different in the afternoon, but I think really being, um, being responsive, Jack, really listening to the needs and being responsive and not just reacting all the time, but just responding to the needs, um, being quick to do things. Cool.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah. I was amazed at how quickly your, the whistler community services adapted to the new world, because we quickly forget, like you say, we didn't know then what we know now about, you know, how long you should leave your groceries in your garage or, um, what you were going to do with all the toilet paper that you had bought. Um, but we, um, were able to adapt and the amount of work that Whistler community services does face-to-face makes may that, that whole time and this time, I would imagine far more challenging. How do you do outreach when, um, you're not supposed to be with people who are outside of your bubble. Uh, and so I would imagine that maybe not a specific, this is what we learned, but the level of flexibility, resiliency, and just how nimble the organization was, I think is something that'll mark Whistler community services going forward. It sure did during COVID.
Lori Pyne:Um, I will say that I, I was the interim executive director and, um, previous to the pandemic, I always used to say, what would Jackie do? What would Jackie do? What would Jackie do? And then suddenly I figured out that Jackie actually wouldn't know what to do in this instance. And so when you say flexibility, it really gave the team. And I flexibility to think out of the box because there was no precedent before it.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah. Yeah. And one of the big things Dave, that came out of, maybe it didn't come out of COVID maybe it was happening before, but talk to us about together and why that speaks so much to this town and when, where it came from.
Dave Clark:Yeah. I, you know, Jack its interesting. Cause that last bit there, you were talking a fair bit about adaptability and if nothing, over the course of our species history, we've been nothing but adaptable, right. We've grown into the people and the species that we are from a very, um, sort of more basic animal on this planet and we will continue to adapt. And what we're seeing through COVID is a evolution that has sped up so quickly, um, that we're going to see more change in these next 15 to 20 years. And we've seen probably in the course of a hundred before. And so when we talk about things like Together, that's the direction we're moving, regardless of how this, if it feels and things we have through, COVID shown that we can do things together. We've shown that we can understand each other better. We have learned how to do things to reach more people we're breaking down barriers and stigmas that have, you know, we've taken hammers too before that have never moved. And so when we talk about, uh, the word together is where you started with this, um, you know, to Lor and I, who kind of had this conversation just over a year ago, about what word can we put on something to share with the community, um, about what we do and where we think the community is and can go and be better at, and together was the word and it started with this well, wouldn't it be cool to put it on a hat and maybe sell them at the reuse it center and, and, and how the available for the community to rally around. You need something to rally around. And we've always been together, Jack, like we've always have been well before. COVID right in small ways. And in big ways when we had, and I'm going to get either the year or the name of this wrong, but in 2005, I think it was, and we held the world championship snowboarding event in January and it poured rain, the community banded together to make sure that event went off and that it was successful. And that we, you know, made it one of the best ever. We did the same thing in the Games this past summer, we had fire evacuees coming from all over the province, through our town for short stays and long stays. We did that together. So that together is actually reaching a web well beyond our community, but we've always done it. We did it before 1989, when Whistler community services that started, we were community groups that were banding together here in the sixties and the fifties. So together as a word, um, and a sort of a placeholder for us, um, has become something more than just a word it's truly, uh, an approach and a lens to how we want to live our lives. Not just at Whistler community services, but how we want to encourage people to do it.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah. And it's, and it's on services, which I think is a really great, um, piece of the story. It's not together as wizard community services, it's together as Whistler. And, uh, and that's, that's a great example of partnership and of you providing leadership and, um, Whistler community services is very much a leader in the approach that we take. And I think one of the ways that you've done that is just that putting a word on our response and it's effective. And it's funny how simple it is. I mean, it takes thinking to decide that we should put a word around this and then rally around the word, but once it's done, it just seems so straightforward and simple. I know it took a lot of work, but, uh, it's, it's, it's felt like a rallying cry. That just makes sense. So congratulations on that.
Dave Clark:Thank you.
Mayor Jack Crompton:So anything else that residents need to know about waste reduction, how they can be a part of the effort, um, during this month of, uh, love this place, reduce our waste.
Lori Pyne:Can I speak a little bit about your small steps for this month? Because, because Whislter community services is nailing all five of them. So I just want to mention that there are little small things. So the first one is, um, reducing single use plastics. So, um, this month at Reuse it, what we just started and we'll probably continue. We have a niche, mish mash, forks, knives, spoons, and chopsticks, and they're all wound up in a, in a elastic band. And you can just put those in your purse, keep them in your car, and then you always have to go cutlery with you. The second one is food, food recovery. Um, we have recently started a new program in the food bank, really started during COVID when a lot of the restaurants closed down and we didn't want all the food to go in to the landfill. So we started recovering it. Now we have a vehicle and we have a program recovering food through the valley. Um, so we drive fruit, preserve food, freeze food, and make it more available for a longer period of time. The third thing was, I think is like buy secondhand clothes. So we nailed that. Fourth one is restore and repair. And so with that, we have rebuilded center with the tool lending library. So, um, again, another thing that came out of, um, reducing waste as well, the average drill gets used where the stroll gets used for 15 minutes before it goes to the landfill. Most people, not a carpenter, but your, your, um, typical drill will be used for 15 minutes. And now we have about 30 drills that can be lent out and you can borrow them for a week at a time. So we've got that at the tool learning library, or you can buy, um, furniture there and repurpose it. And then the last one was composting and recycling. And I think we've nailed that too, when we're keeping 90% of our donations. Um, out of the landfill,
Mayor Jack Crompton:My dad was impressive check marks across the board.
Lori Pyne:That's big moves people that's big moves.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Cool. How many of those are you hitting, knocking on?
Cole Stefiuk:I wish I was hitting all five. I mean, I do buy secondhand clothing for sure. Uh, I do reduce my single use plastics. Uh, I have been doing really good to do that. Cutlery gets me though. I come into the office and I'm like, oh, I don't have anything. And I grab a spoon when I get super frustrated or something, you know? So you gotta work on carrying cutlery or having like a little shelf here in the studio for that,
Mayor Jack Crompton:You know, like a year you have to be the guy that people are like, you know, that guy Cole, you know, the guy that's always got spoons in his pockets.
Cole Stefiuk:Yeah. I got like an empty, a filing cabinet. I'm just going to fill that one with a, you know, a couple pieces of cutlery and then people are going to be looking for like sales papers. And they're just going to see my forks in the drawer
Mayor Jack Crompton:Uh, anything final that either of you want to share with the listeners today. Dave?
Dave Clark:Yeah, I think when we talk about waste reduction and other thing that's interesting that certainly come out of a COVID is sort of the whole working remotely piece. Um, you know, prior to COVID, um, you know, people kind of needed to get up and go off to their work and they, in many cases creating emissions, whether that's through, you know, gas in their car or otherwise. Um, and so somebody like me who works from home primarily, um, you know, the, the systems for being able to do your work more effectively and more efficiently while still not creating those emissions, uh, has grown, you know, tenfold. Um, we can do stuff like this that we may not have had the opportunity to do before. It wouldn't have been, you know, even on our radar to do the video conferencing is something from the Jetsons show when we were kids. And, uh, and here we are doing it right. It's absolutely amazing. And so the more we can have people, you know, work from home part time or what have you, the further we can move that dial in, you know, less emissions and that kind of stuff. So
Mayor Jack Crompton:The Jetsons was an awesome show, by the way, any children who are listening and have not watched the Jetsons should probably look into that call. Are you, uh, are you
Cole Stefiuk:Insinuating that I don't know who the Jetsons are
Mayor Jack Crompton:Check? Well, I don't know. It was a big deal when I was a kid. I'm sure it wasn't a big deal when you were a kid. Okay.
Cole Stefiuk:Um, my, my, my family like forced me to watch the Jetsons and the Flintstones like every night. So
Dave Clark:You were raised well Cole, Very influential show.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Uh, Laurie, anything final?
Lori Pyne:Well, I'm sitting pretty good here, but I was thinking that I was an ambassador for your Sea to Sky electric vehicle commuting big action last month. So I'm, I'm not, I'm headed in the right direction for a green family and a green life. I think I hope.
Mayor Jack Crompton:And then next month is the month of transit ride the bus. So you could tick be three for three months. If you, uh, if you rode the bus next month.
Lori Pyne:It's going to be a long year Jack.
Mayor Jack Crompton:So the last question that we ask, uh, everyone who visits us here on the wizard podcast is what are you reading or what podcasts are you listening to that inspires you or makes you think, Dave, what are you reading? Are you listening to,
Dave Clark:I'm currently reading, uh, two books. One is the Light between Oceans the novel, about a guy who is a lighthouse keeper in Australia. Uh, it's quite good. Uh, the other, I am reading is, uh, by a gentlemen and I'm hoping I'm getting his name right here, Bill Proctor, who lives in a place called Echo bay, which is, uh, in the, um, inside passage, just on the outskirts of the partner proposal. It is called Full Moon, Full Moon, Flood Tide. Um, and it is a story of his life in that particular region. And it's absolutely fascinating, uh, this sort of very remote coastal nine coastal, uh, life, um, listening. My fate two favorite podcasts are broken record with Rick Rubin and there is a amazing one that came over recently with Henry Rollins, from Black Flag with his story. And it is mindblowing. Anybody who's looking for hope should listen to that particular episode. It's amazing. Um, and I also listened to Dan Harris who, uh, was with ABC news for a couple of decades who has got a podcast called 10% happier and a support book that goes with it. Um, and it's a lot around, uh, Buddhism and, uh, Buddhism practices, meditation and that kind of stuff.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Thank you. Those are good. All right.
Lori Pyne:Well, I just read Jack Nicholson's biography. That was scintillating. You guys are gonna laugh on my bedside table. So I got Jack Nicholson. I got Five Little Indians and I got Gifts of our Land. Um, they're on my bedside table. They're all quite different from each other, but I'm laughing very esoteric, Dave, and I'm reading about
Mayor Jack Crompton:Jack Nicholson. Well, you guys thank you for everything that you do in our town, but thank you for your leadership. Uh, I think your leadership around together has been critical and your leadership around, uh, the management of our waste as a community is a really big deal. Thank you for spending time with us today on the Whistler Podcast. It's a, that's a pretty inspiring story of the history of our center.
Cole Stefiuk:Absolutely. I love hearing about it cause I have, even though I didn't like grow up in Whistler specifically, I grew up down the road in Squamish. I have so many great memories of going there to do some shopping. When I was a little kid, I loved the reused center. I'm glad it's doing so much good work in the community and now they got that store. I'm just going to keep going back.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah. It's, it's interesting how it's progressed over time and they've tried new things. I think, you know, when they opened the rebuild it center, which lets you buy, you know, sink vanities and couches and tresses for your house. Um, that was a bit of a sort of, uh, innovative place. Something that wasn't necessarily going to work. And the same was true when the Re Use It Center opened originally, it was an unusual thing to do for a community to decide that they were going to fund social programs through the sale of, of used items. But the big legacy is this massive reduction in waste and, and how it's actually used to produce, um, uh, the good in our community. I really thought that Dave's explanation of that sort of virtuous circle is an interesting one.
Cole Stefiuk:Absolutely. I think it's really cool. I got to ask. We didn't really do the, uh, at the beginning of the and Jack, but I want to know what your best find from reuse it or rebuild it center has been.
Mayor Jack Crompton:That's a good question. Um, I think I, for me t-shirts are the core of, of thrift stores. That's what you find the best of. And I have a shirt that's a people's it says People's Bank on it and it's green, and I've had it for, I dunno, 20 years from the Re Use It Center and it's worn well and evidence that it's a good shirt is that my children have now stolen it from me. So it's no longer my shirt, my daughter Maggie wears it. And, uh, so the people's bank, t-shirt, it's just the right kind of green. It's just like an emerald green.
Cole Stefiuk:And that's how I know it's still stylish if the kids are taking it, you know? Exactly.
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah, totally. Uh, how about you? What's your number one find,
Cole Stefiuk:Oh, man, I found a lot of great stuff there, but the number one for sure was when I was a kid, uh, I got this like Calvin and Hobbes. It was like a whole massive book of Calvin and Hobbes scripts or like a comic strips. Uh, and I was like eight and I read that like every day I loved it. I loved it so much. So I think it's a lot that book somewhere and I have to pull it out for a, you know, a counter or a living room, table book. You know,
Mayor Jack Crompton:You need to take it back to the Reuse It Center and put it back into circulation.
Cole Stefiuk:I get, I still have too much attachment. And so I want to have it and show it off. Oh, okay. I'll, I'll get it back there. Eventually I will keep the cycle up differently and let my kid enjoy it in the future when they're young, you know?
Mayor Jack Crompton:Yeah. Okay. That sounds like a reasonable alternative. Um, so, uh, I want to thank you all for listening today. Grateful that you took the time. The Whistler Podcast is brought to you by the Resort Municipality of Whistler and Mountain FM. Thanks for listening. Catch you next time.
Cole Stefiuk:[inaudible].