About 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 affiliated with Transition Sooke. The initiative grew from a screening of the documentary film 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 meeting at the Sooke Region Volunteer Centre in late February.

Since then, ZWS volunteers have met regularly and undertaken a series of year-one actions. These have included educational booths at the Sooke Country Market; articles in local media; the launch of Facebook and Twitter social media streams; a zero-waste display at Canada Day on the Sooke Flats; a mid-summer clean-up of major and secondary Sooke roads; and a trash-busting ProjectServe co-venture with students from the University of Victoria that saw 20+ extra-large bags of junk removed from the forest behind the Evergreen Mall.

Our priorities going forward, ideally in partnership with local schools, the District of Sooke, the Capital Regional District and Sooke’s waste-removal operators:

  • 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)

Interested in learning more? Do you have time, passion, skills and energy to spare as one of our volunteers? Please contact us.