I just found out today that as of last Oct 1 the BC provincial government began collecting some sort of enviro-levy on the purchase of virtually all small household electrical appliances. I can't believe I hadn't heard one peep about this in the news or from elsewhere.
I only found this out after coming home from shopping today and seeing some mysterious $1.00 charge for "PORT. AND FLOORC" on my sales receipt. I called them up thinking it was some sort of mistake, but they assured me it was as per above. How "PORT. AND FLOORC" translates into enviro fee is beyond me; I couldn't imagine a less transparent way of describing it.
I even phoned BC gov't offices (gen'l info) to seek some educational resources and they told me to ask the Recycling Council of BC about it, but they were closed for the day when I called, so I looked at their website. Must have searched for half an hour for something, *ANYTHING* that would tell me, yes, sir, that item is going to cost you an extra dollar because of all this do-goodery.
Now, I'm not necessarily opposed to paying such fees to save the world as it were, but can we PLEASE have some transparency (a) in how the fee is charged and collected (not sure if the retailer is to blame there or if they're simply following provincial directive) and (b) from the government's own gloss on just how gosh-darn wonderful this whole program is?
BC Enviro-levies
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Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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TheLionKing
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Government has to pay for their lavish pension somehow
You seem to have completely missed my point. What they're doing with the money is an entirely separate issue from how they're going about taking it in.TheLionKing wrote:Government has to pay for their lavish pension somehow
Anyway I just got off the phone with the RCBC people and they directed to the fee/levy schedule, which for some reason is located on another website different from their own:
http://www.unpluggedrecycling.ca/#funding (you might have to scroll around a bit to get to the box called "Funding the Program")
This gives an overview of the fee schedule; the pdf gives more details. You'll note they're also expanding the scope of levied items this coming July 1 to include power tools and some other items. Anyone with imminent need for these products would probably be well advised to act promptly.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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Sir Purrcival
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It didn't go unannounced but it did fly pretty low on the radar. It is another level of recycling and it now means you have someplace to take that old toaster rather than just throw it in the landfill. There are a lot of metals, plastics and other components in any electrical device that should be recovered and reused. Just the copper alone that is currently sitting in various landfills could probably make it worthwhile to mine in the future. As far as I know, you can now take your old appliances to those places that also take computers. Don't quote me on that but that is the general idea. I can live with the $1.00 charge. That makes far more sense to me than paying the CEO of BC Rail an obscene amount of money for administering an railway company that has no trains. Now that is ridiculous!
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Low on the radar sounds about right; I'd like to dig out the first press release for this and see if it wasn't on a Friday afternoon — the traditional hour for any public concern to announce bad news, especially on the eve of a long weekend. I believe one of the websites from the two links I posted above has some info about who accepts electrical waste for recycling; I seem to recall London Drugs was one of them but I'm not prepared to be quoted on that either.Sir Purrcival wrote:It didn't go unannounced but it did fly pretty low on the radar. It is another level of recycling and it now means you have someplace to take that old toaster rather than just throw it in the landfill. There are a lot of metals, plastics and other components in any electrical device that should be recovered and reused. Just the copper alone that is currently sitting in various landfills could probably make it worthwhile to mine in the future. As far as I know, you can now take your old appliances to those places that also take computers. Don't quote me on that but that is the general idea. I can live with the $1.00 charge. That makes far more sense to me than paying the CEO of BC Rail an obscene amount of money for administering an railway company that has no trains. Now that is ridiculous!
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.