Everyone's going green in the Mt. Tolmie Area! How green are you? Check out these tips for easy ways to go green, save energy, and save money!

Recycling information

Saving energy

Choosing locally grown or produced products

Recycling Information

Recycling organic waste, used containers, and unwanted products is a great way to reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill and to reuse materials such as plastic, metal, and glass again.

Recycling pick-up schedule (Blue Box, Blue Bag)

BC to add lightbulbs (contain mercury) and hand-held devices to list of mandatory recycling items

Community composting (kitchen waste and other organic matter)

Electronic products (televisions, computers, printers, etc.) recycling locations
The closest location is the Salvation Army at #111 - 3934 Quadra Street 250-384-3755.

Medication (prescription drugs, non-prescription medicines) recycling locations Medications can be returned to virtually all pharmacies in the Victoria area.
List of acceptable and unacceptable medication products

Milk container (plastic, coated cardboard, tetra pack) recycling locations
Please remove caps, rinse, and crush.
The closest location is the Return-It Bottle Depot 3961 Quadra Street 250-727-7480.
Plastic jugs can also be placed in your blue box, but not coated cardboard or tetra pack containers.

Paint, pesticides, flammables recycling locations

Plastic bag recycling
Plastic grocery bags can be recycled at most grocery stores, including Fairway Market, Thrifty Foods, Safeway, and Save-On-Foods. You can also use them as lunch bags, wastebasket liners, trash bags for your car, pet waste pick-up, and to carry wet swimsuits, towels, and worn clothing home from the pool and gym. Even better is to use reusable nylon/cloth grocery bags, available at most stores.

Rechargeable battery recycling locations  for Li-ion batteries NiMH batteries NiCd batteries
The closest location is Home Depot at 3986 Shelbourne St.
Non-rechargable batteries such as alkaline and zinc-carbon are currently recyclable only at the Hartland Landfill & Recycling Area

Used automotive oil (oil, oil filters, oil containers) recycling
The closest location is Canadian Tire at 3993 Cedar Hill Road 250-721-1125

Saving Energy

There are many ways to save energy, some obvious and others not as much.

Home heating

Check your home's insulation. It is at least R20 in the attic? If not, adding more is fairly inexpensive compared to the amount of money you could save in heating costs.

What type of heating system does your home have? If you have an oil furnace, a natural gas furnace, or an electric resistance heating system, you may want to consider upgrading to a more efficient, cost saving heat pump system. Besides being safer and using much less energy, heat pumps can also work as air conditioners in the summer for cooling. They work with your existing ducting. And, you'll likely free up some space in the basement.

Home lighting

Compact flourescent bulbs are bulky and expensive, take a while to start up, don't last long, and have a light that's hard on the eyes, right? Wrong! The latest CFLs have a clean white light, start up right away, last much longer than incandescents, and cost not much more than incandescents. And they use about 25% as much electricity (a 13 watt CFL equals the output of a 60 watt incandescent). To get started, buy a 4 or 5 pack of 13W CFLs and put them in locations you don't use too often, such as basement hallways, the porch light, closets, etc. Once you see how great they are, you'll want to buy more for your other locations. They also come in 9W (40 watt equiv) and 23W (100 watt equiv). Try a 23W for the laundry area and maybe a 9W for that corner that justs needs a little light.

Also consider motion sensor lighting for more areas in your home. You may have them now for outdoor lighting near your entrance, garage, or back door. Try them inside your garage, laundry room, and maybe even the bathroom. Just set the duration to the appropriate time, eg: 3 minutes and it will turn off unless it detects more motion. No need to worry about switching on or off the light while carrying a full load of laundry!

Trip planning

Don't forget to combine trips whenever possible, such as keeping enough food on hand so that you only need to go to the store when it is convenient for you with another trip.

Carpool with others when you can. Take turns taking the kids to classes, sports, games, etc.

Transportation choices

Make sure you choose the right transportation mode for your needs each time you travel. A car may be the right choice for a longer trip with lots of cargo. A bike may be the best choice to go to the neighbourhood fitness center or library. Walking might help you feel refreshed on a nice day. The bus might be the best way to get to work without worrying about traffic and parking.

Also, do you really need that second (or first) car? Consider car sharing with Victoria Car Share Co-op. Maybe you can take a nice vacation with the money you'll save! Or maybe you can just call a taxi for those few times you really need a car. It may seem a little expensive, but compared to the cost of insurance, depreciation, gasoline, maintenance, parking, etc., taxis can be a money saver. You may also find that although trips may take a little longer with other modes of transportation, overall you may be saving time because you won't be spending time parking, filling up the car's gas tank, washing the car, cleaning up the interior of the car, getting the car serviced and repaired, insuring the car, etc.

Once you've tried some of the other options, you may decide the time is right to sell or scrap your old car. Did you know your old car can be worth up to $2250 or more, even if it can just barely make it to the auto recycler? Check out the BC SCRAP-IT program for details and incentive choices such as $1250 for the Victoria Car Share Co-op, or two years of transit passes, or one year of transit passes and a new electric bike, etc.

Choosing Locally Grown or Produced Products

Help reduce fuel use and emissions from the transportation of produce and other products to the Mount Tolmie community.

Look for the "grown in BC" labels on fruits and vegetables at your local grocery. Also check to see if they have products produced right here on southern Vancouver Island.

Check out Island Farm Fresh for locally grown fruits, vegetables, eggs, poultry, and more. Some farms have products available year round.