In British Columbia, regional districts develop solid waste management plans under the provincial Environmental Management Act. These plans are long term visions of how each regional district would like to manage its solid wastes in accordance with the pollution prevention hierarchy. This plan will be renewed on a 10-year cycle to ensure that it reflects the current needs of the Central Coast Regional District (CCRD) as well as current market conditions, technologies and regulations.
The CCRD submitted their first solid waste management plan to the Province for approval in 1996. This plan was not approved due to concerns regarding plan financing. Consequently the CRRD revisited the planning process and prepared a revised plan which the Province approved in2004. The history of the planning process is discussed further in section 2.2.
This draft document represents an update of the CCRD's solid waste management plan and once approved by the Province (along with any approval conditions), becomes a regulatory document for solid waste management and serves to guide the solid waste management related activities and policy development in the CCRD. In conjunction with regulations and operational certificates that may apply, this plan regulates the operation of sites and facilities that make up the region's waste management system (seeSection2.3).
The CCRD Board of Directors approved the Solid Waste Management Plan in open public meeting on March 9, 2017. It has been submitted to the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy for review and finalization.