Zero Waste meets on the first Thursday of the month (except during the summer) from 7-8:45 at the Sooke library (6671 Wadams Way) in the large meeting room.  All are welcome to attend. 

Questions and to request a zoom link contact us!

Zero Waste Sooke (ZWS) is dedicated to clean(er), green(er), wholly realistic dreams of a hometown region that reduces and manages its ecological footprint in the most practical and common sense ways possible. We champion the 5Rs of the international Zero Waste movement — Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot in that order — as a sane and sustainable lifestyle choice. We advocate action at a personal level while also calling for community initiatives that will speed Sooke’s evolution into a model Zero Waste community.

ZWS is a citizen’s initiative and TS working group that emerged following the screening of The Clean Bin Project at Awareness Film Night in January, 2015. Zero Waste Canada‘s Buddy Boyd was the guest speaker that night. His call for community action inspired a first exploratory ZWS meeting at the Sooke Region Volunteer Centre in late February.

Since then, ZWS volunteers have met regularly and undertaken a series of actions. These have included:

•  The “Talk Trash” community open house gathering and a series of delegations to Sooke council promoting key ideas arising from that meeting (i.e., a plastic-bag bylaw and recycling centre).
• The Sooke Region Planet Earth Day Celebrations on April 22 (Earth Day) 2018 and a resultant legacy fund that has financed recycling bin systems at Fred Milne Park, Art Morris Park and the Community Hall.
• Twice-annual Repair Cafes at the Sooke Community Hall with a crew of local volunteer fixers.
• The BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) public awareness signage campaign outside major Sooke retailers.
• Regular Sooke and, for Earth Day, Sooke region community clean-ups involving ZWS volunteers and dozens of community participants.
• Workshops at the Sooke library for kids and adults (i.e., sessions on furoshiki, the Japanese art of zero-waste giftwrap).
• A pair of trash-busting ProjectServe co-ventures with students from the University of Victoria (which each saw 20+ extra-large bags of junk removed from Lot A behind Evergreen Mall).
• Educational booths at the Sooke Country Market, Canada Day at the Sooke Flats, Seedy Saturday and the Sooke Music Festival.
• Steadily maintained Facebook and Twitter social media streams.

Priorities established not long after the group formed and ideally to be undertaken in partnership with citizens, local schools, the District of Sooke, the Capital Regional District, Sooke’s waste-removal operators and other allies:

• Educate the next generation about the importance of waste reduction (and, through them, their parents)
• Turn local waste resources into jobs
• Find a property and support the establishment of a recycle depot, free store, yard-waste depot and composting centre
• Encourage reduced plastic use (including a ban on single-use plastic bags)

If you want to join this inspiring initiative, please contact us!