With consultants’ help, district staff have hit upon an almost zero-cost solution to Ucluelet’s perennial recycling problem.
“It’s great that we don’t have to wait for those speedballs at the Regional District to come up with a plan,” said one source at the district office. “We’d be buried under our own recyclables before that ever came through.”
Instead, the district last last year hired Victoria eco-consultant firm Dumpitt & Runne on a $60,000 retainer to seek out a more immediate solution. 
After nearly eight months’ work, the firm came up with a cost-effective plan. “In fact, it only cost about $200 — the price of the 3-by-5 sign we recently installed at the Tofino Recycle Yard,” said Ed Dumpitt, of Dumpitt & Runne.
In a nutshell, the plan for handling Ucluelet’s recyclables involves the simple expedient of having residents drive them to Tofino and dump them at the recycling depot there. “That’s where much of it was going anyway,” Runne said, “so with the addition of a sign on the Tofino depot we can make it official, and remove any heat from Ucluelet council or the Regional District to act.”
“It might seem unfair for Ucluelet to dump its recycling problem on Tofino taxpayers,” said Carmen Runne, also a principal of the consulting firm. “But our research shows otherwise. They may spend $50,000 a year on their recycling, but they’re no angels. Tofino is still pumping raw sewage into Clayoquot Sound, and our surveys show that many environmentally-minded Tofinians are making the trek to Ucluelet to use the toilets here, because of Ukee’s sewage treatment. So we believe it’s a fair exchange.”
Others agree. “I personally know at least a dozen Tofino people who hold it for almost a week until they can get to a bathroom in Ukee,” said one village source. “So it’s all even-steven, in my books.”
No comments have been received from Tofino council or taxpayers, but the Regional District office expressed unanimous approval of the plan, as has Ucluelet council.
