17 Feb

First things first, Island Return It Recycling Centres doesn't dispose of unused medications. In Canada, pharmacists are the best bet for this as they have a designated stewardship program in place. When you have unused or expired medications in your home it is important that you dispose of them in a safe and responsible manner. In this blog post, we will explain how to safely remove potentially dangerous narcotics and medications from your home. Toss It?  Nope. The easiest thing to do is to simply throw old medicine into the trash. However, we strongly advise that you not do that! Unused pills might be mistaken for candy by small children and sometimes this leads to tragic results. Likewise if a household pet or wild animal were to get into your garbage. Flush It? Nope. Some drugs are safe to flush down the toilet but not all and because expired medicines are not processed during sewage treatment,...

19:40 / Community / Industry News / Recycle Me
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13 Jan

This past Christmas when we threw our annual holiday party (which was awesome!) and we presented everyone on the Island Return It team with a special gift. A gift that meant more to us than a bottle of wine or a book or anything else we could have dreamed up. This year we wanted to give the gift of nourishment not just to our employees but their families too. So everyone got a chicken. Promoting Health and Hope We choose to purchase the chickens from the Hope Farm in the Cowichan Valley for a few reasons: 1) We wanted to support our neighbors Hope Farm is located close to the Island Return It head office in Duncan and we love the "Buy Local" movement and want to participate. Promoting the products and services available in our communities is important to us, as we live and work in them too. 2) We wanted to support a worthwhile...

21:33 / Community / Local
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14 Nov

At Island Return It Recycling Centres we believe in community and giving back. We know that the folks that we serve in our communities (Victoria, Duncan, Saltspring & Campbell River) also feel strongly about specific organizations, whether they want to help raise funds for schools, sports teams, shelters, food banks, hospitals or private citizens in need, we want to help them do it! Afterall, recycling isn’t just a business for us, it’s a lifestyle and we love being active members of our communities. That’s why we offer a unique fundraising opportunity that takes a long term approach to collecting donations. Setting up an account for your favourite charity or organization has never been easier and can be done in a matter of minutes. Step 1 Call or visit your local Island Return It location and tell us you would like to set up a charitable account. Step 2 Decide on one or two people who...

22:56 / Community / Local
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14 Nov

It can be an unpleasant part of the job, but the fact is Recycling Depots attract wasps. The thing that many people don’t realize though, is that if we all work together to ensure that our recyclables are rinsed and cleaned we can drastically reduce the amount of buzzy visitors we get. The majority of wasps that you see in a bottle depot actually arrive with the recyclables. They are attracted to your sweet smelling cans and bottles and will often unknowingly hitch a ride to our depot when you bring your refundables back. Once here and away from their hives they don’t live long but there are plenty of opportunities to sting someone. Since our staff is often working around wasps, we polled them on their best sting avoidance techniques and this is what advice they had to offer: The Advice 1-      Do not wave your arms around in an attempt to...

22:55 / Community
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